Interview of Chairman of SinoPharm:
The west does not pursue inactivated vaccine because they are NOT ABLE to. The advantage of inactivated vaccine over any other types are it is more effective against future variant than any other types of vaccine because it uses the full dead body of virus rather than a small piece.
Six key techs that enabled China's speedy development of inactivated vaccine.
First, selection and isolation of desired virus sample in
16 days.
This basically defeated the speed advantage of mRNA against new variant.
Second, breakthrough in inactivation process. Safe and adequate to maintain "antigen" characteristic.
Third, breakthrough in purification in volume. The breakthrough was achieved in 2013 from the IPV vaccine.
Forth, mass production (cultivation of virus).
Other countries do not have. Once again from IPV program.
Fifth, packaging.
Sixth, bio-safety. SinoPharm has built the
production platform including
P3 standard in 2017 from the ipv program after 8 years of research. China already have the full set of tech before Covid-19. This is also what I said long time ago that no country has P3 production capability except China.
In summary, in China's perspective, mRNA or any other fancy vaccines have no advantage in dealing Covid-19 and China has a mature and ready production line by 2020. Inactivated vaccine is the natural choice.