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COVID vaccines

Doubts over China vaccines' effectiveness mar production push

Focus on speedy development comes back to haunt Sinovac and Sinopharm

Doses of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine in Serbia: China is sending shots to countries around the world, especially those part of its Belt and Road initiative.   © Reuters

DALIAN, China -- Major Chinese drugmakers are rushing to expand production capacity for COVID-19 vaccines to aid inoculation drives around the world, but mounting doubts over how well their shots work may cloud global demand down the line.

Hammering sounds reverberated across a Beijing construction site one June day as workers put up walls for a new Sinopharm-affiliated vaccine factory. "Construction is going on 24 hours a day so the plant can go online July 1," a security guard said.

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