GC Pharma & SK Bioscience are competing

in the chickenpox vaccine market

SK Bioscience wins 37 billion won worth of chickenpox vaccine market

From the left, GC Pharma Barycela and SK Bioscience

GC Pharma's Barycela challenges the international procurement market.

 

Competition among domestic companies in the international procurement market for chickenpox virus vaccines is likely to begin in earnest.

 

SK Bioscience seems to be challenging first while undergoing the World Health Organization (WHO) certification process for overseas sales of GC Pharma's new chickenpox vaccine.

 

According to the industry on the 15th, SK Bioscience made its debut in the international procurement market for chickenpox vaccines on the 14th.

 

SK Bioscience received a preliminary notice from PAHO about $31.27 million worth of chickenpox vaccine orders.

 

SK Bioscience will supply Sky Varicella, a chickenpox vaccine, to the Latin American market from 2022 to 2024.

 

PAHO, along with UNICEF, is the largest vaccine consumer.

 

SK Bioscience plans to introduce Sky Varicella to various international procurement markets in the future as it passes the PAHO bid.

 

Sky Varicella was released in 2018.

 

In multinational global clinical trials, including Latin America, immunity and effectiveness in children aged 12 months to 12 years have been confirmed.

 

The chickenpox vaccine from global pharmaceutical companies was used as a control group to prove the level of safety equivalent to that of excellent antibodies.

 

As a result, SK Bioscience and GC Pharma competed in the chickenpox vaccine international procurement market.

 

GC Pharma has dominated the international procurement market with Suduvax.

 

Suduvax is the first vaccine developed by GC Pharma in 1993 in Korea and the second in the world.

 

Suduvax, which has won bids in the international procurement market, has served as GC Pharma's cash cow.

 

From 2017 to 2018, it won about $60 million worth of orders from PAHO, ranking first in the procurement market.

 

Chickenpox vaccines generate more sales in overseas markets than in Korea.

 

As a result, domestic companies actively utilize the international procurement market to advance the vaccine into the global market.

 

According to Allied Market Research, a global market research firm, the global chickenpox vaccine market is expected to grow 5.6 percent annually from $2.714 billion in 2018, forming a scale of $4.22 billion by 2026.

 

GC Pharma will also challenge the international procurement market within this year through Barycela.

 

Barycela was approved by the MFDS in March 2020 and was released in Korea in September last year.

 

Like Suduvax, Barycela is a live vaccine and it has improved quality and productivity, greatly increasing yields.

 

GC Pharma's Barycela is currently undergoing WHO PQ certification process.

 

PQ certification is essential to participate in bidding for the international procurement market.

 

The industry predicts that Barycela will acquire PQ certification and participate in the international procurement market in the first half of this year.