CanSino Biologics' recent mRNA manufacturing tie-up with AstraZeneca represents just the tip of the iceberg, the company’s CEO has said.
After jumping into the mRNA game back in 2018, CanSino has built a facility in Shanghai that can produce up to 200 million vaccine doses a year, the company’s co-founder and CEO Xuefeng Yu told Reuters in a recent interview.
He described the mRNA deal with AZ, unveiled earlier this month, as a “business model" for the company, noting that it's just "the first step.”
In early August, CanSino and AZ inked an mRNA manufacturing deal that’s set to last for at least 10 years. Under the deal, CanSino will use its mRNA manufacturing platform to support AZ on the R&D of certain vaccines. No financial details were disclosed.
Now, Yu notes that alongside discussions with multinational pharma companies such as AZ, CanSino is also engaged in talks with potential partners in Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico and Argentina. The company is open to help in “any market that may need our technology and product.”
CanSino’s single-dose COVID shot is approved in 10 countries including Argentina, China, Mexico and Hungary. The vaccine has also been endorsed by the World Health Organization.
As with many pandemic players, CanSino has seen COVID revenues tumble over the past few years, though Yu told Reuters the company expects no further significant write-downs involving unsold shots.
In 2022, CanSino’s COVID shot brought in 878 million Chinese yuan ($122 million) in sales, down 80% compared with 2021.
CanSino is also looking at other uses for its factory in Tianjin, China, which is used to churn out COVID vaccines.
"That facility shares the same platform technology with other vaccines, it could easily be used for other vaccine production," Yu said.
CanSino added mRNA to its COVID-19 efforts in the early days of the pandemic. In May 2020, the company signed a deal with Precision NanoSystems to develop an mRNA lipid nanoparticle vaccine.
In January, the company reported early booster data for its mRNA prospect, dubbed CS-2034. A midstage trial showed the vaccine was better at inducing neutralizing antibodies than inactivated vaccines against both the original coronavirus strain and an omicron variant.
Despite those promising early results, the company has paused its clinical trials for mRNA COVID shots and now plans to explore the technology for other diseases.