I know enough financially broke startups to confirm that a working prototype is only a small part of a successful business.

The approach to intellectual property in China is much more open, partly because the leaders understand that technical expertise is more than just a one-off design, and competitors probably can't enter the market without significant capital investment and risk. In the case of healthcare, I suspect that regulators will prevent any vaccines manufactured with sub-standard procedures, such as those made in university labs.