Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology

Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co, Ltd. is a Chinese biotechnology company based in Shanghai, China. It operates as a subsidiary of Walvax Biotechnology.

Activities

The company has received three grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

  • September 2015: $5,003,336 to improve women's access to low-cost bivalent HPV vaccine in GAVI-supported countries[1]
  • October 2019: $2,505,923 to improve women's access to low-cost nonavalent HPV vaccine in GAVI-supported countries[2]
  • May 2020: $1,000,000 to support research and development for COVID-19 response[3]

In July 2021, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced that it had partnered with Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology and its parent company, Walvax Biotech, to develop COVID-19 vaccine candidates against both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and its newer variants.[4] As of October 2022, CEPI had provided up to $25.1 million USD towards a candidate called 202-CoV, but had ceased further funding.[5] The chimeric protein candidate remains in Phase I clinical trials.


  1. Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (2015, September). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20221101031710/https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2015/09/opp1127764 ↩︎

  2. Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (2019, October). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20221101031958/https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2019/10/opp1210446 ↩︎

  3. Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (2020, May). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://archive.today/2022.10.21-073052/https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2020/05/inv006445 ↩︎

  4. CEPI partners with Shanghai Zerun Biotech to develop COVID-19 variant vaccine. (2021, July 21). CEPI. https://web.archive.org/web/20220611060746/https://cepi.net/news_cepi/cepi-partners-with-shanghai-zerun-biotech-to-develop-covid-19-variant-vaccine/ ↩︎

  5. Who we are. CEPI. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20221019165747/https://cepi.net/about/whoweare/ ↩︎

About the author
Liam Sturgess

Liam Sturgess

Liam Sturgess is a Canadian writer, researcher and investigative reporter focused on issues of human rights and civil liberties, with a particular interest in the COVID-19 pandemic. He is the founder of White Rose Intelligence.

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