On Jul. 12, 2021, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced that it had signed advance purchase agreements with Sinopharm for its ﾓBBIBP-CorVﾔ inactivated virus vaccine against COVID-19 as well as with Sinovac for its inactivated virus vaccine against COVID-19, ﾓCoronaVacﾔ.

The agreements, which came at a time when the Delta variant was posing a rising risk to health systems, began to make 110 million doses immediately available to participants of the COVAX Facility, with options for additional doses.