(Yicai) Feb. 19 -- Chinese biopharmaceutical company Everest Medicines has ended its partnership with Canada’s Providence Therapeutics on developing Covid-19 vaccines due to waning demand.

Everest will pay USD4 million to Providence after the pair terminated their cooperation and licensing agreement on Feb. 16, the Jiaxing-based firm announced today.

The two companies agreed to jointly develop Covid-19 mRNA shots and therapies in September 2021 in a deal that gave Everest the right to sell Providence's mRNA vaccine candidates in China, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The global market for Covid-19 vaccines is shrinking. Pfizer's sales of Comirnaty sank 70 percent to USD11.2 billion last year as the pandemic retreated, the US drugmaker said in an earnings report.

Under another previous deal valued at USD500 million, Everest will keep using Providence's mRNA platform to develop products with full intellectual property rights. Everest will be able to come up with new products more flexibly based on its own strategy and will no longer need to make milestone payments or pay royalties to Providence, except for co-developed jabs such as for rabies and shingles.

Shares of Everest [HKG: 1952] finished down 1.6 percent at HKD17.02 (USD2.18) in Hong Kong today, extending the stock’s decline to more than 18 percent so far this year. The benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 1.1 percent.

Editor: Emmi Laine