(Yicai Global) May 17 -- Shares of Kangtai Biological Products jumped after authorities approved its self-developed product to become China's sixth Covid-19 vaccine to be administered.

Kangtai's stock price [SHE:300601] surged as much as 8.9 percent to CNY221.90 (USD34.50) intraday this morning. The equity price has soared by about 50 percent in less than a month.

A production base in Shenzhen for the inactivated vaccine is operational while Kangtai has started preparing for phase III clinical trials, the Shenzhen-based company said in a statement on May 14. The firm completed its phase I and phase II in February.

Before Kangtai's Covid-19 immunization product, China has approved three such inactivated vaccines to be used under an emergency use authorization. Moreover, one recombinant protein vaccine has been given the green light, and one adenovirus vector vaccine can be marketed conditionally.

Kangtai has its sights on three Covid-19 vaccines. In August 2020, the Chinese firm and AstraZeneca penned an exclusive deal for Kangtai to promote the Cambridge-based company's adenovirus vector coronavirus vaccine AZD1222 in the Chinese mainland.

Moreover, Kangtai is working on another Covid-19 inoculation that is based on a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vector.

In February, the Chinese company proposed issuing convertible bonds to raise no more than CNY2 billion (USD310 million) to construct capacity to make 400 million Covid-19 vaccine doses a year. Some of the money should go toward building facilities to make AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi