A new factory in Abu Dhabi will start manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm later this year under a joint venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 (G42). 

The plant, which is being built in the Khalifa Industrial Zone of Abu Dhabi, will have a production capacity of 200 million doses a year with three filling lines and five automated packaging lines, a statement from the joint venture said on Monday. 

The vaccine will be called Hayat-Vax when manufactured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but is the same inactivated vaccine from the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm's China National Biotec Group, that the UAE approved for general use in December. 

As part of the joint venture, interim production of Hayat-Vax has already begun in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah under a deal between G42 and Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries PSC, the statement said. 

That interim production line has an initial capacity of 2 million doses per month, however no details were given about how long production will continue there. 

The UAE, through G42, hosted Phase III clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine from July, which later expanded to other countries in the region including Bahrain. The UAE approved the vaccine for front-line workers in September before making it available to the general public in December. 

G42 has previously said it has distribution and manufacturing agreements with Sinopharm and hopes to provide the UAE and other states in the region with the vaccine. 

(With input from Reuters)