China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (02197.HK) was finally looking to the future after a big bet on Covid vaccines failed to pay off. However, decisions made early on in the pandemic are still casting a long shadow.
The company went all-in to produce a Covid vaccine, stalling work on other projects in the race to come up with a domestically produced immunization option. But the Covid crisis had peaked by the time the product was ready for delivery. The investment turned sour and Clover Bio had to lay off nearly half its workforce.