2019 will be remembered as a banner year for international drug makers as many grew at phenomenal rates in China, despite expansion of the “4+7” centralized procurement scheme and steep price cuts in exchange for reimbursement. As the government continues to emphasize affordability for cancer drugs and major anti-infectives, competition is heating up quickly and immune-oncology alone has seen six PD-1s elbowing each other for market share.

Following in the steps of Merck & Co. and GSK, Pfizer is turning to a Chinese partner to more broadly market one of its top vaccines in the country - but the US firm is going one step further.

Since October, reported cases of infectious respiratory diseases have been rising in China, prompting an information request from the WHO. However, no new types of pathogen or unusual clinical symptoms have been detected so far.