On November 26, 2022, Shanghai Fosun Pharma (Group) Co., Ltd.("Fosun Pharma", Stock Code: 600196.SH; 02196.HK) announced that the first batch of about 770,000 doses of the Comirnaty Original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5 bivalent vaccine (i.e. Comirnaty Original/Omicron BA.4-5 (15/15 micrograms)/dose Dispersion for Injection COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (nucleoside modified)) ("Comirnaty bivalent vaccine") by Fosun Pharma/BioNTech arrived in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ("Hong Kong SAR") on November 25. The Comirnaty bivalent vaccine can be used as an alternative to the fourth dose for eligible persons aged 12 or above following the current vaccination schedule, or the third dose for recovered persons. According to official information from the Hong Kong SAR Government, Hong Kong residents can make appointments from 27 November and the bivalent vaccination will officially start on 1 December.
On November 26, the Health Bureau of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ("Macau SAR") announced that, in response to the spread of Omicron variants, the Macau SAR Government had purchased Comirnaty bivalent vaccine against Omicron BA.4-5 and the toddler formulation of Comirnaty (mRNA COVID-19 vaccine) for children aged 6 months to 4 years. The vaccines have arrived in Macau SAR and will be available for vaccination upon completion of the vaccine receipt procedures.
Comirnaty bivalent vaccine is an iteration and supplement to the Comirnaty, a monovalent COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) which is already in the market. The bivalent vaccine contains 15-µg of mRNA encoding for the spike-protein of the wild-type of SARS-CoV-2, which is present in the original mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and 15-µg of mRNA encoding for the spike protein of the Omicron BA.4-5 sublineage of SARS-CoV-2. Because the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages contain identical spike protein amino acid sequences, both can be targeted at once with a single mRNA strand. Pre-clinical data showed a booster dose of the Comirnaty bivalent vaccine generated a strong neutralizing antibody response against Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4-5 variants, as well as the original wild-type strain.
In March 2020, Fosun Pharma and BioNTech announced a strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize COVID-19 vaccines based on BioNTech's mRNA technology platform for Greater China Market, including the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan region.
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