(Yicai Global) Dec. 28 -- Shares in CanSino Biologics have plunged 28.7 percent in the past month and those in Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products by 11 percent as China’s vaccination program slows down dramatically despite some regions introducing a second booster jab amid a new wave of the novel coronavirus.

The share price of 10 Covid-19 vaccine makers has tumbled by an average of 8.9 percent in the last 30 days. Kangtai’s share price [SHE:300601] was trading at CNY30.72 (USD4.41) as of 1 p.m. China time today and that of CanSino [SHA:688185] at CNY149 (USD21).

The number of Covid-19 vaccines administered so far in the second half this year has plummeted 95 percent from the second half last year to 66.5 million doses and 88 percent from the first half, according to the latest statistics from the National Health Commission.

This huge drop in demand has badly hurt the bottom line of vaccine makers. CanSino’s net profit sank by more than 100 percent in the first half from the same period last year, and revenue slumped 69.4 percent slump in revenue. And in the first three quarters, net profit plummeted 145.7 percent year on year and revenue tumbled 77 percent.

“The recent slump in CanSino’s stock price has to do with the new wave of Covid-19. After catching the virus, the human body will naturally develop some immunity, so there is no need to get vaccinated,” a manager at a private equity firm told Yicai Global.

The disappointing performance of other vaccine makers Hualan Biological Bacterin, Changchun BCHT Biotechnology and Jiangsu GDK Biotechnology was because sales of their influenza vaccines fluctuated greatly under Covid-19 prevention and control measures during this year’s second and third quarters. Their profitability was also under pressure due to high expenditure on sales, research and development.

The government has also pushed the price of vaccines down. In April, the National Healthcare Security Administration said that the price of inactivated jabs, which contain a killed form of the virus rather than an attenuated one, should be reduced to CNY90 (USD12.90) per dose, much cheaper than in other parts of the world. Since then, there have been further rounds of price cuts and an inactivated jab now costs around CNY20 per dose.

An increasing number of pharma firms are also developing mRNA Covid-19 jabs, which have higher technological barriers and offer better safety, causing competition in the vaccine market to become even more heated.

More than 1.3 billion people in China, equal to 92.5 percent of the population, are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, of which 893 million, or 67 percent of the total, have had booster shots, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Nov. 4.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor