Egypt to receive 500K Sinopharm vaccine doses next week, total stands at 2.5M: minister

CAIRO - 9 Juny 2021: Health Minister Hala Zayed in a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday said Egypt will receive 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine by the middle of next week.

Zayed said Egypt has so far received a total of 2.5 million doses of this vaccine.

Half a million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine will also arrive during June, Zayed said.

Concerning the AstraZeneca vaccine, Zayed said Egypt has so far received a total of 2.6 million doses and will work to determine the needed quantities of this vaccine.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Egypt will produce the first package of the Sinovac vaccine next week.

The Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) signed with Sinovac in April two agreements that allow Egypt to locally manufacture the vaccine.

VACSERA will manufacture the final product using the ready-made product provided by Sinovac.

The first agreement is related to the transfer of technology required to manufacture the vaccine doses, a Cabinet statement read. Under the agreement, Sinovac will grant VACSERA a limited license to use the manufacturing technology.

VACSERA will manufacture the vaccine inside the company’s production facilities.

The second agreement stipulates that Sinovac secures for Egypt all technical information related to the company’s vaccine and provides technical assistance.

Technical assistance will include examining VACSERA’s factories and testing the final product and means of manufacturing.

Last month, Egypt has received its first batch of the raw materials required to produce the Sinovac vaccine.

Zayed in a press conference said VACSERA will produce 40 million Sinovac doses in the first year.

Egypt is expected to produce the first batch of Sinovac doses by June 15, said Zayed on Sunday.