Staff members at Shenzhen airport load anti-pandemic medical supplies onto an aircraft in March last year. CHINA DAILY

After airports in Beijing and Shanghai, the Shenzhen facility obtained the International Air Transport Association's Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in pharmaceutical logistics in October－an internationally recognized certification for cold-chain medicine deliveries. The airport also has a 350-square-meter refrigeration center and three refrigerated trailers.

In late November, Ethiopian Airlines and Cainiao International, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, launched the first regular international cold chain route between China and Africa from Shenzhen airport. The route was used to transport temperature-controlled drugs, including COVID-19 vaccines, to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Medical supplies are kept at temperatures as low as－23 C along the route－cold enough for the storage conditions required for most COVID-19 vaccines throughout the distribution process.

The route is currently being used for two weekly shipments of anti-pandemic supplies. Testing of vaccine deliveries began in mid-January and such supplies are expected to be shipped in bulk from the second quarter of this year, according to Cainiao International.

Wan expects the surge in demand to continue, with more vaccines on course to be licensed for use.

In December, the UAE and Bahrain granted marketing authorization for vaccines developed by the mainland pharmaceutical company Sinopharm. On Jan 2, Egypt also approved the emergency use of Sinopharm vaccines.

Zhang Jun, ambassador and permanent representative of China to the United Nations, wrote in an article last week that Chinese vaccine aid has been provided to 14 developing countries and will soon reach 38 more, as part of broader efforts to deliver on its pledge to make its vaccines a global public good.

Vaccine developer Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co has collaborated with AstraZeneca from the United Kingdom to produce a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by the latter company and Oxford University. Kangtai has promised an annual capacity of 200 million doses of vaccines by the end of next year.

Last year, Shenzhen airport handled more than 2,900 international cargo flights to 46 countries. Industry insiders attributed the performance to the city's solid foundations for the biomedicine and cross-border e-commerce industries.

The special economic zone boasts a thriving cluster of biomedicine enterprises, including Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co and BGI Genomics, a leading producer of COVID-19 testing kits. Ventilator supplier Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co is also based in Shenzhen.

The city is an e-commerce hub for domestic and international transactions and home to numerous small and medium-sized companies running related businesses that form sophisticated industrial chains.