(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- Chinese companies will display their inactivated Covid-19 vaccines and rapid Covid-19 nucleic acid test equipment at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing next month, the Beijing News reported yesterday, citing the Chinese capital's health commission.

The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services jointly held by the Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing government will start early next month.

The event will showcase these coronavirus nucleic acid molecular detection reagents and inactivated vaccines both online and offline, said Zhang Yuntao, vice president of China National Biotec Group, which is one exhibitor at the fair.

China National Biotec is conducting clinical trials of its inactivated Covid-19 shot in many countries, Zhang said, noting the inoculant is very likely to come into the market at year's end. The company will guarantee production of 220 million does Covid-19 vaccines a year when its two research institutes put their corresponding workshops into use, he predicted.

Sinovac Biotech will present its inactivated Covid-19 jab, the firm's chairman Yin Weidong said. The company has started its phase III clinical trials in many countries.

Covid-19 vaccines are public health products and costs thus determine their pricing, not market supply and demand, Zheng Zhongwei, head of the vaccine research and development team under the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Research Team to Combat Covid-19, said in state broadcaster CCTV's Dialogue program yesterday on the future market prices of Covid-19 vaccines.

An inactivated vaccine, also known as a killed vaccine, consists of virus particles, bacteria or other pathogens grown in a culture to lose their infectious qualities, in contrast to live vaccines that use still-living pathogens that are attenuated, i.e. weakened.

Editor: Ben Armour