Why is the exp. date of the Sanofi flu vaccine short?

This year's lot released Vaxigrip expires on March 31st next year

It is 3 months shorter than the expiration date of domestic products

Production for the Northern Hemisphere has been moved up, so it's best to introduce it quickly

With domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies starting to distribute flu (influenza) vaccines, the expiration date of the Sanofi vaccine is about three months shorter than that of other products.

 

This means that the Sanofi vaccine must be discarded in April, when Korea is still considered to be a flu epidemic period, so it cannot be used.

 

Sanofi explained that it is the best way to speed up the introduction of Korean products.

 

According to the pharmaceutical industry on the 17th, domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, GC Pharma, Boryung Biopharma, Ilyang Pharmaceutical, and Korea Vaccine have started supplying vaccines in preparation for the 2022-2023 seasonal flu epidemic.

 

According to the current status of the seasonal flu vaccine lot release for domestic use released by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, a total of 9.32 million people were approved for shipment from July 18 to the 12th of this month.

 

Among them, the expiration date of Sanofi's flu vaccine Vaxigrip is about seven months later, until March 31, 2023, which is particularly shorter than other vaccines.

 

Sanofi received Lot releases for each lot of Vaxigrip on August 1, 2, 4, and 9, which were valid for the same period as March 31 next year.

 

The flu vaccine is usually valid for one year.

 

The validity period of other flu vaccines approved for shipment at the same time is around June-July next year, about a year later.

 

For example, GC Pharma's GC FLU , which received a Lot release on August 1, has an expiration date of June 12, 2023, and Korea Vacine's Kovax-Flu validity period, which was approved on the same day, is June 23, 2023.

 

On August 10, Boryung Bio Pharma's Boryung Flu, which was released on August 10, is specified to expire on July 5, 2023.

 

Ilyang Pharmaceutical Terrestrial Pfs, which received a lot release on July 19, ahead of Sanofi, also has an expiration date of June 14, 2023.

 

This means that the expiration date of Vaxigrip is about three months shorter than that of other flu vaccines, so Vaxigrip must be discarded in April next year, when the flu vaccine is in vogue.

 

In Korea, the flu epidemic is expected from October to April of the following year.

 

The government's national flu vaccination project is also in line with this.

 

The expiration date is not a problem when receiving national shipping approval, but vaccine manufacturers generally distribute vaccines that can be received until the end of the business period.

 

This is because if the expiration date ends within the epidemic period, products that need to be discarded can be inoculated to consumers, and common sense believes that it is inappropriate to supply products that need to be discarded within the business period.

 

Some raise suspicions that the reason why Sanofi supplied the flu vaccine so early is because of the expiration date.

 

Originally, Sanofi distributed the flu vaccine in Korea from September to October every year with GSK.

 

In the case of imported finished products, unlike domestic manufactured vaccines, it takes longer to finish production at foreign factories and enter Korea through a certification process.

 

However, this year, Sanofi began supplying vaccines at the same time as domestic manufacturers.

 

Previously, the expiration date was longer than this, so there was no big difficulty in supplying from September to October, but this year, the expiration date had to be advanced as the expiration date was less than eight months away.

 

An official from a vaccine manufacturer said, "As Sanofi distributes vaccines with a short distribution period in Korea, confusion is expected in the vaccine market," adding, "Some analysts say that Sanofi is accelerating the introduction as it has to quickly exhaust its products this year." Sanofi explained that it brought in products produced relatively early so that domestic consumers could receive vaccines quickly.

 

Unlike previous years, influenza strains that will be prevalent in the southern and northern hemispheres this year were consistent, so there was no need for a technical process to change the strain, which allowed the production of vaccines for the northern hemisphere to be accelerated.

 

Imported finished products have more testing processes and are more difficult than domestic companies, so no matter how fast they speed up, the remaining validity period is bound to be shorter than other domestic vaccines that have been released at the same time.

 

An official from Sanofi said, "Korean corporations have tried to advance the timing due to the late introduction schedule of imported products in Korea, and we have secured vaccines as soon as possible as we can produce Northern Hemisphere products early this year due to the same strain." "The introduction process may be complicated and the expiration date may be relatively short, but we did our best to supply the product at a similar time to other vaccines.

 

Also Vaxigrip Tetra whose expiration date is from May to July 2023 is going to be supplied sequentially in Korea," he said.