A "matchmaking" meeting for the China International Import Expo was held in Shanghai on Sunday for companies showcasing products to be put in the expo's new section for public health and epidemic prevention.

The annual expo will be held as scheduled from Nov 5 to 10, and the "matchmaking" is among the events to mark the 100-day countdown to the expo.

Liu Jiang, a sales head with PerkinElmer, a diagnostic solutions provider, said the company will introduce a mobile lab equipped with modules from sample preparation to testing, which can be mounted on a van or a truck.

"It provides an easily deployable and versatile solution to respond to an epidemic, like small clusters of COVID-19 outbreaks," Liu said.

Qiu Jianping, general manager of Abbott Rapid Diagnostics China, said the products the company will display at the expo include a fast blood testing system that was donated to Huoshenshan and Leishenshang makeshift hospitals in Wuhan when the city was stricken by COVID-19 in February.

The exhibitors also founded a special committee on public health and epidemic prevention. Major pharmaceutical companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, Roche and Sanofi, were among its founding members.

Drug maker MSD served as the first rotating president of the committee. Its China branch president, Joseph Romanelli, said the companies are developing two vaccines against COVID-19, which will likely go into the clinical stage soon.

"There are probably more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates being reviewed … I think what we will see at the CIIE is an opportunity to talk about the diversity of vaccines," he said.

Wu Kun, the China COO of Pfizer Biopharma Group, said the company will have a 150-square-meter exhibition area in the new section to showcase its vaccine development and its efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.