Vaccines - COVID-19 epidemic drives rapid industry development

A number of heavyweight vaccines, led by COVID-19 vaccine, were approved for listing in 2021, and in addition, several varieties have entered the late clinical stage and are expected to be listed for sale in 2022. The enactment "Vaccine Management Law of the People's Republic of China" in 2019 has set strict guidelines in key aspects such as R&D, production, circulation and vaccination, laying a solid foundation for the healthy development of the industry, which is expected to Vaccine companies with rich R&D pipelines, core technological advantages and advanced production levels will stand out and gain long-term development. In recent years, listed companies in the vaccine industry have continued to maintain a trend of rapid revenue growth, with revenue growing 49% and profit growing 56% year-on-year in 2020; while the vaccine industry performance grew significantly from Q1 to Q3 in 2021, driven by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Driven by the COVID-19 epidemic, China's vaccine industry accumulates a large amount of cash under the domestic sales + export model of COVID-19 vaccine throughout 2021, laying a good financial foundation for future innovation and development on one hand, and laying a good foundation for other categories of vaccines to enter the global market in the future on the other hand. As of December 2021, the cumulative vaccination of China's COVID-19 vaccine exceeded 2.5 billion doses; in terms of export, from the customs data, China's human vaccine export continued to increase in 2021, and considering the repeated impact of the epidemic, there is still room for overseas export in the future. In addition, the export of COVID-19 vaccine has laid a good foundation for the future overseas export of other vaccines in China, and it is expected that the sales of other vaccines in overseas markets will be released in the future.

In recent years, the batch issue volume of China's vaccine industry has increased year by year, while the share of non-immunization vaccines has increased year by year, and the whole vaccine industry is expected to develop further. As of December 31, 2020, the cumulative number of vaccine batches issued in China was 651 million doses/bottles/granules, an increase of 14.39% year-on-year. At the same time, the share of non-immunization vaccines priced by enterprises is increasing year by year, which is expected to strengthen the influence of relevant enterprises in the industry.