Recently, the Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, launched the Sabin-IPV Phase II Project in Kunming. The project is the largest of its kind in China to produce inactivated polio vaccines. It is expected to produce 60 million doses of Sabin-IPV annually. Upon completion, the project will be able to meet the inoculation needs of all newborns in the country.

It took Chinese researchers nearly 30 years to develop the world’s first single Sabin-IPV, and the inoculation was approved for the public by China’s Food and Drug Administration in 2015. On May 1, 2016, China added the one-dose IPV and three-dose bivalent live-attenuated OPV to the national immunization program in a bid to completely eliminate polio from the world. The attenuated IPV produced by the Institute of Medical Biology has broken the one-time IPV monopoly held by multinational companies. However, the present annual output of 8-12 million doses falls far short of demand. Thus, the Institute of Medical Biology has launched the Sabin-IPV Phase II Project, which is expected to involve an investment of 350 million yuan and produce 60 million doses of Sabin-IPV annually.