GSK chooses Kwangdong over SK to sell quadrivalent flu shot - Korea Biomedical Review

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said it selected Kwangdong Pharmaceutical, instead of SK Bioscience, to sell its quadrivalent influenza vaccine Fluatrix Tetra in Korea.

On Tuesday, GSK said it signed an agreement with Kwangdong Pharmaceutical for a joint sale of Fluatrix Tetra.

GSK said Kwangdong Pharmaceutical would be a joint sales partner to market its quadrivalent influenza vaccine, Fluatrix Tetra, in Korea.
GSK said Kwangdong Pharmaceutical would be a joint sales partner to market its quadrivalent influenza vaccine, Fluatrix Tetra, in Korea.

Fluarix Tetra added one more strain of type B virus to a trivalent influenza vaccine.

It can be administered to almost all age groups from six-month-old or older infants to the elderly aged 65 or more and chronic disease patients. The vaccine will be produced at a plant in Dresden, Germany, and imported into Korea as finished goods.

Fluarix Tetra was the first quadrivalent flu vaccine to win marketing approval in Korea in 2014. Yuhan Corp. distributed the vaccine for four years from 2015 and GC Pharma from 2019 to 2020.

GSK's vaccine sales posted 13.6 billion won ($11.6 million) in Korea in 2020.

As the flu season is approaching in Korea, GSK chose Kwangdong as a new sales partner because the company is a seasoned vaccine distributor with a competitive local sales network, GSK said.

Under the agreement with GSK, Kwangdong will sell Fluarix Tetra for all age groups in internal medicine, family medicine, orthopedics, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

Kwangdong also announced a plan for domestic sales and distribution of Fluarix Tetra on Tuesday, raising anticipation for growth in earnings.

Kwangdong has been jointly selling GSK's eight pediatric vaccines since 2015.

Last year, the company's revenue rose 12.7 percent on-year to 61.5 billion won by distributing GSK's eight kinds of vaccines.

"It has become all the more important to prevent flu in the Covid-19 pandemic situation, and we will contribute to the public health," an official at Kwangdong said. "The agreement was also an opportunity to strengthen further the business relationship of the past six years between the two companies."

Industry watchers questioned why GSK did not choose SK Bioscience, which discussed joint sales of Fluarix Tetra earlier.

In January, GSK and SK Bioscience agreed to jointly sell five types of GSK's vaccines -- Boostrix to prevent TDAP (Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis), Menveo against meningococcal disease, Havrix 1440 against hepatitis A, Priorix against measles and mumps, and Cervarix against cervical cancer.

"We indeed discussed with GSK for a joint sales of Fluarix Tetra," an official at SK Bioscience said. "But the discussion was to gauge the possibility."

GSK's not choosing SK Bioscience for Fluatrix Tetra had nothing to do with SK's focus on manufacturing and distributing the Covid-19 vaccine, the official went on to say.

The cooperation between the two companies, including SK's supply of GSK's immunity booster for SK's development of Covid-19, remained strong, he said.

To concentrate on producing and distributing the Covid-19 vaccine, SK Bioscience halted the production of trivalent and quadrivalent SKYcellflu.

The company plans to distribute Sanofi Pasteur's three-strain influenza vaccine Vaxigrip in September in Korea.

Adblock test (Why?)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

poliomyelitis treatment

Image
poliomyelitis treatment Drug and Device News March 2019 - P&T Community Posted: 04 Mar 2019 10:35 AM PST NEW DRUG APPROVALS Ontruzant, a Herceptin Biosimilar The FDA has approved trastuzumabdttb (Ontruzant, Samsung Bioepis Company, Ltd.) for HER2-overexpressing breast cancer and HER2-overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Trastuzumabdttb, a HER2/neu receptor antagonist, is the third FDA-approved biosimilar of Herceptin (Genentech). Patients should be selected for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic. Trastuzumab-dttb carries a boxed warning about the risks of cardiomyopathy, serious and fatal infusion reactions, embryo-fetal toxicity, and pulmonary toxicity. Ontruzant will be marketed and distributed in the U.S. by Merck. Sources: Samsung Bioepis, January 21, 2019; Ontruzant . prescribing information, January 2019; FDA, January 18, 2019 Vaxelis, a Combination Vaccine T
Read more

Co-authors of Minnesota State Fair history book optimistic for event's return - KSTP

Image
Co-authors of Minnesota State Fair history book optimistic for event's return - KSTP Co-authors of Minnesota State Fair history book optimistic for event's return - KSTP Posted: 02 May 2021 05:03 PM PDT "I do remember the polio pandemic. I was 8 years old at the time that that fair was canceled," Kathryn Koutsky said. "And my parents and I, we always went to the fair, and so that really affected me." And last year's modified drive-thru fair looked nothing like what's seen in the history books.  "The fair is so crowded that you just couldn't imagine going into the crowd. I mean, it was awfully sad," said Kathryn's daughter, Linda. "I loved going to the fair. I go several days each year, but you just knew there was no way we could go." But there is some hope for the state fair this year. On Friday, Gov. Tim Walz indicated Minnesota is on track for its retu
Read more

Polio was nearly extinct. Then the anti-vaxx movement reached Pakistan - Los Angeles Times

Image
Polio was nearly extinct. Then the anti-vaxx movement reached Pakistan - Los Angeles Times Polio was nearly extinct. Then the anti-vaxx movement reached Pakistan - Los Angeles Times Posted: 05 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT An anti-vaccination movement rooted in suspicions of modern medicine. Unsubstantiated rumors fueled by social media. Children infected with a disease that had been all but wiped out. Polio is making a troubling comeback in Pakistan, and it is being driven by some of the same forces spreading measles in the United States . Two years after health officials declared they were on the verge of eradicating the crippling childhood disease from Pakistan, one of the last countries where it remains endemic, at least 58 children here have tested positive for the virus since January. That is nearly five times the total of all of last year, and the most in a calendar year since 2014 — a major setback for a $1-billion-a-year global eradicat
Read more