Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a China-based vaccine manufacturer, announced today that it has received the confirmation from the China International Tendering Company that Sinovac was selected by the Beijing Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (Beijing CDC) to supply the Company's hepatitis A vaccine, Healive, to the Beijing Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI).
As part of the bidding process, the Beijing CDC evaluates potential suppliers and assigns scores for different factors, including product quality, service and price. Based on the comprehensive score, Sinovac was selected one of the two suppliers and was allocated a greater share of the total purchase order. The total ordered quantity allocated to Sinovac is approximately 477,000 doses.
Mr. Weidong Yin, Chairman, President and CEO of Sinovac, commented, "We are very pleased to have been awarded the purchase order for our hepatitis A vaccine by the Beijing Government, as it is a testament to our core competencies as a high quality domestic vaccine manufacturer.
We will leverage our manufacturing capacity and established quality controls to produce the doses pursuant to the purchase order." In February 2008, the Chinese government included hepatitis A vaccine into its national immunization program, and announced plans to expand vaccination to newborns nationwide by the end of 2010. The EPI program covers children at 18 months of age. The purchase plan from the Beijing CDC reflects the continued expansion of government purchase programs for vaccines as it is part of the national expanded immunization program (EPI) funded by Chinese government.