Work Starts in Serbia on Chinese Sinopharm Vaccines Factory

Serbian, Chinese and UAE officials on Thursday laid the foundations of a factory near Belgrade that is designed to mass-produce Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, CEO of UAE Mubadala company Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of the Emirati company Group 42 Peng Xiao, Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo…Photo: Serbian President’s Facebook

Serbian leaders, the Chinese ambassador to Serbia and representatives of Chinese and UAE companies on Thursday laid the foundations of a Sinopharm vaccines factory in a suburb of Belgrade – a joint investment of Serbia, China and the United Arab Emirates worth 30 million euros.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the factory would in the end produce 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses a year, which is, he said, “enough for Serbia, the region and everyone who is interested”.

“We will be among the first in the world to have the opportunity to change the content of the substance together with partners from China and the UAE, and to be among the first in the world to share the benefits of scientific discoveries with the people and to increase the efficiency and quality of vaccines,” Vucic said.

Vucic said that the first plant where the Chinese vaccines will be filled will be completed by the end of March next year, by which time the bottling of Sinopharm vaccines will be done in Hemofarm company in Serbia, which is owned by German pharmaceutical giant Stada.

In the second phase of the project, another plant will be built in 2023 where the active substance for the Chinese vaccine will be produced. Serbia’s President stated that in this factory, besides production, they “will be able to improve and fill new components for future vaccines”.

Besides Vucic, Serbia’s Health Minister, Zlatibor Loncar, China’s Ambassador to Serbia, Chen Bo, Belgrade Mayor Zoran Radojicic, CEO of UAE Mubadala company Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Peng Xiao, CEO of Emirati technology company Group 42, were present.

On June 4, Serbia also started domestic production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine at the state’s Torlak Institute for Virology, Vaccines and Serums in Belgrade.

The Balkan country mainly uses Chinese vaccines, followed by Russia’s Sputnik V, but it also uses the Pfizer-BioNTech and Astra Zeneca vaccines.

Despite the large quantities of vaccines which Serbia obtained early on, it has only vaccinated only slightly more than 50 per cent of its adult population, almost 20 per cent below the European average.

Note:This article was amended on September 10, 2021 to reflect the exact attribution of Group 42 company.