Shingrix leads shingles vaccine mkt…occupies 44% of mkt

Shingles vaccine market size doubles in one year

Lead market with sales of KRW 38.5 billion last year...sales remain strong due to its strong preventive effect despite the high price

Korean vaccine SKYZoster’s sales rise 33%, but mkt shares fall

The new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, has risen to lead the market in its first year of sales.

 

It quickly gained 44% of the market share with its strong shingles prevention effect despite its high price.

 

Since the addition of Shingrix, the market has doubled in size.

 

According to the drug research institution IQVIA, the shingles vaccine market was worth KRW 87 billion last year, expanding 105.8% from the previous year.

 

The domestic shingles vaccine market has been declining every year after reaching KRW 89.9 billion in 2019.

 

In 2022, the market size was KRW 42.3 billion, less than half of what it was 3 years ago.

 

The analysis is that the pandemic has caused the premium vaccine market to shrink.

 

Annual size of shingles vaccine market (Unit: KRW 100 million, Data: IQVIA)

However, the introduction of the new Shingrix has revitalized the shingles vaccine market.

 

In last year’s shingles vaccine market, Shingrix posted the most sales, posting KRW 38.5 billion in sales.

 

The vaccine, which has been available since December 2022, began to exert its presence in Q1 last year with sales of KRW 6 billion, occupying a 28.9% share.

 

In Q2 last year, it quickly became the leading shingles vaccine, posting KRW 11.1 billion, and continued to lead in Q3 and Q4, posting KRW 9.9 billion and KRW 11.1 billion, respectively.

 

Shingrix’s share of the shingles vaccine market last year reached 44.2%.

 

In other words, the vaccine took the market by storm, occupying nearly half of the total market in its 1st year of release.

 

In Q4 last year, the company's market share rose to 50.2%, further solidifying its lead.

 

The greatest benefit of Shignrix is its strong shingles-prevention effect.

 

In a Phase III clinical trial (ZOE-50) that was conducted on adults aged over 50 years of age, Shingrix showed a 97.2% efficacy compared to the non-vaccinated group at 3.2 years of follow-up, and in another Phase III clinical trial (ZOE-70) conducted on adults aged 70 years and above, Shingrix showed an 89.8% efficacy at 3.7 years of follow up.

 

This is superior to the 5% protection in adults aged over 50 years of age and 41% in adults aged 70 years and above demonstrated with the use of Zostavax.

 

The prevention rate of SKYZoster is also known to be comparable to Zostavax.

 

Also, Shingrix’s safety profile was confirmed through 5 clinical trials that were conducted on immunocompromised patients aged 18 years and older.

 

Based on such evidence, patients who received autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or those with solid cancer, blood cancer, or solid organ transplant patients who have an increased risk of shingles are also eligible to receive vaccination with Shingrix.

 

At the time of its release, Shingrix's significantly higher price than existing vaccines was pointed to as an obstacle to the vaccine’s early settlement into the market.

 

vaccines.

 

The price of Shingrix, which is administered two times in total, is set at around KRW 500,000 to 600,000.

 

This is more than twice as high as the existing vaccine, which costs KRW 150,000 to 200,000.

 

However, Shingrix rapidly increased its market share in the market supported by its superior efficacy despite the high price.

 

Also, the sales support from 2 domestic pharmaceutical companies contributed to Shingrix’s rapid market penetration.

 

GSK started domestic sales of Shingrix in partnership with two companies, GC Biopharma and Kwangdong Pharmaceutical.

 

Sales of shingles vaccines (Unit: KRW 100 million, Data: IQVIA)

Existing shingles vaccine products such as SKYZoster and Zostavax saw sales increase from the previous year, but their market share declined due to Shingrix.

 

SK Bioscience’s SKYZoster’s sales had risen 33.3% YoY to record KRW 26.2 billion last year.

 

SKYZoster is a live attenuated vaccine for the prevention of shingles that was developed by SK Bioscience with its proprietary technology.

 

The vaccine has proven its non-inferiority compared to its competitor (Zostavax) in adults aged 50 or older in 8 domestic clinical institutions.

 

In October 2017, the company obtained approval for SKYZoster from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for 'preventing shingles in adults over the age of 50'.

 

Before its approval, MSD's Zostavax was the only vaccine in the market, and the introduction of SKYZoster had sparked market competition.

 

SKYZoster's growth slowed during the pandemic after posting KRW 34.1 billion in sales in 2019.

 

In 2021, sales fell to 18.2 billion won, a 46.7% drop in two years.

 

SKYZoster rebounded in 2022 with 19.7 billion won in sales and grew even more last year.

 

However, its market share fell from 46.5% in 2022 to 30.1% in one year due to the rise of Shingrix.

 

In the case of Zostavax, it posted sales of KRW 22.4 billion last year, up 0.5% YoY.

 

In 2019, Zostavax posted KRW 55.9 billion in sales, occupying 62.1% of the market share.

 

However, its sales have been on a downward trend since then, and its share shrank to 25.7% last year.