In what could be a blow to some aspiring developers eyeing the nascent but growing biosimilars market in China, new rules lay out when extrapolation of approved indications of reference biologics will be allowed, meaning this will not be automatic.

CanSino's adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine, along with another one from state-owned Sinopharm grab promot approvals in China as  Beijing shipping millions of doses around the world.

While global vaccine heavyweights Merck & Co, Sanofi and GSK are so far not faring so well to successfully develop a vaccine for COVID-19, smaller players are stepping up. That's especially true for segmented markets such as China.

A WHO team concludes a high-profile investigation in Wuhan, where the first coronavirus cases surfaced over a year ago, while a single-dose vaccine from China's CanSino is on the way.