Central SOEs Improve Medical, Livelihood Service

Central SOEs are strengthening technical and service innovation to ease livelihood and medical service issues during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.

China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Sinopharm), has developed a nucleic acid detection reagent of the novel coronavirus and was one of the first to obtain a registration certificate for national medical equipment, which gives it a significant role in patient screening as well as virus detection and isolation.

By March 4, a detection reagent developed by the company had been delivered to several provincial regions, Hong Kong and Macao as well as some other countries. The reagent can help test nearly 1 million people.

In addition, the company has also proposed to treat patients in critical condition with the immune plasma of those recovered from the epidemic.

The company has set up 47 plasma donation stations in 17 provincial regions and has collected plasma from 462 people. The treatment has been promoted nationwide as an approved treatment method.

A CNBG medical worker collects plasma from a person recovered from the COVID-19 epidemic. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Vaccine development is also part of the company's efforts. Isolation and identification, establishment of the third-level virus seed bank and viral inactivation technology verification have already been completed and clinical animal experiments are now underway.

An employee of CNBG at work [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Scientific and technological research on development of a recombinant vectored vaccine, monoclonal antibodies and a horse antiserum is also progressing.

CNBG has turned on its full power to guarantee drug supply to both the market and the front-line.

Other central SOEs are also trying to make daily life more convenient for people during the epidemic.

China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) developed a platform collecting a group of service applications including Didi for traffic and traveling, DMALL for daily consumption, Meituan for food orders and SF Express for delivery, which helps people to live safely and conveniently.

The company also developed a big data system to support resumption of production for enterprises.

By March 4, the two platforms had provided services for more than 308 million people.

COFCO Group (COFCO) also contributed to food supply during the epidemic.

The company not only supplied basic grains like rice, flour and oil to the market, but also prepared varieties of dishes for 230 voluntary medical workers in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on behalf of the Beijing Hospital and the China-Japan Friendship Hospital.

The dishes were specially made for medical workers considering their strong workload by COFCO's departments of nutrition and health research and the sub-academy of cereals, oils and nutrition.

The company will continue to offer meals for medical workers in the city and its affiliated company GrandJoy will also participate in supply donations and transport.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)