German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Estimates China Will Agree To The Use Of BioNTech Vaccines

Illustration of the COVID-19 vaccine for boosters. (Antarananews)

JAKARTA - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz estimates that Chinese authorities will soon approve the use of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by German pharmaceutical company BioNTech.

While giving a press statement in Beijing, Friday, November 4, Scholz said he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang regarding the increased cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

"That means the use of BioNTech for foreigners in China and the granting of approval in China," he said, quoted from Antara, Sunday.

Although it is only the initial stage, the German leader hopes that BioNTech's use will be expanded to anyone in China.

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin participated in the German business delegation with Scholz during his state visit to China on November 4-5, 2022.

Apart from Sahin, there are also a number of senior executives from various other leading German companies, such as Adidas, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Volkwagen, BMW, BASF, Wacker Chemie, Bayer, and Merck.

PM Li said that economic and trade cooperation is the basis of bilateral relations between China and Germany.

"China is willing to increase cooperation with Germany in various fields, such as trade and investment, manufacturing and handling of COVID-19 and climate change," he said as quoted in a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Beijing, Saturday.

During the nearly three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has not given a single foreign-made vaccine approval, although BioNTech has made a collaboration agreement with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical in 2020, according to local media.

The vaccines from the collaboration of German-China companies can only be used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Foreign nationals in China have been able to only use inactive-based vaccines developed by local Chinese companies.

Even if there are foreigners who use the vaccine made by BioNTech, they get it from their respective embassies.