Boryung’s imported quadrivalent vaccine gets greenlit

Owns manufactured or imported vaccine line-ups, likely to make strategic release

After receiving an approval on imported quadrivalent influenza vaccine, Boryung Biopharma now owns three manufactured or imported vaccine items.

 

Sources predict the Korean company would choose an item to launch and its quantity based on the purchase price.

 

On Mar.

 

16, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) granted an approval on Boryung Biopharma’s quadrivalent influenza vaccine Afluria prefilled syringe.

 

The vaccine is used on people aged over five years to adults for prevention of influenza virus type A and influenza virus type B infection.

 

The quadrivalent vaccine targets two type A viruses and two type B viruses.

 

It prevents one more type of viruses than the existing trivalent vaccines.

 

So far, MFDS has approved 11 quadrivalent vaccines from nine companies including SK Bioscience, GC Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi Pasteur, Boryung Biopharma, Korea Vaccine, Ilyang Pharmaceutical and Dong-A ST.

 

And among them, two are imported complete vaccines—Fluarix Tetra by GSK and Vaxigrip Tetra by Sanofi Pasteur.

 

The newly approved Afluria is an imported complete vaccine Boryung Biopharma, which is manufactured by Seqirus, an Australian-based biotechnology company CSL Limited’s subsidiary.

 

Boryung Biopharma also manufactures other quadrivalent influenza vaccines, such as Boryung V Tetra Vaccine and Boryung VII Tetra Vaccine.

 

The company brings the source solutions from GC Pharma and Sanofi and fills the syringe with the vaccine at Jincheon plant.

 

As a result, the Korean company owns total of three quadrivalent line-ups with two manufactured and one imported.

 

The company official commented on Afluria and said, “The release date has not been set, yet.

 

As we have some time left until the beginning of flu season in September, we would review the market situation thoroughly and decided on the release schedule.” The pharmaceutical industry predicts quadrivalent vaccine supply price could fluctuate with the heated competition in the market, and because the vaccine type is now a part of National Immunization Program (NIP) distributed through Public Procurement Service.

 

Especially for Boryung Biopharma, the solution purchase price from GC Pharma and Sanoif could be affected depending on the related policy changes.

 

Considering the prime cost of three approved vaccines, the Korean vaccine company is expected to enter the market with strategic price.

 

According to IQVIA data, Boryung Biopharma’s quadrivalent vaccine sales volume from last year has reached 7.2 billion won.

 

Currently, SK Bioscience and GC Pharma that manufacture both the solution and complete vaccine are topping the marketing by generating 13.1 billion won and 12.4 billion won, respectively.

 

Whereas GSK importing the vaccines are closely tailing the two top companies by making 7.9 billion won.

 

The quadrivalent vaccine market would have to see if Boryung Biopharma with competitive line-up would bring an impressive impact on the market with forthcoming pricing policy.