S.Korea's SK Bioscience to resume domestic flu vaccine output

South Korea's SK Bioscience Co. will resume making domestic flu vaccines by year's end, two years after it stopped production to supply a vaccine for COVID-19.

In a national vaccination project in which the government purchases all flu vaccines, the company won the most bids in getting ahead of its competition.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Tuesday said it concluded a contract with six companies to supply 112.1 million vaccines for the national vaccination support program during the 2023-24 flu season.

The contract determined each company's supply based on the lowest price in order. SK Bioscience received the largest volume of 2.4 million doses at 10,650 won ($8.37) each for a combined value of 25.7 billion won.

IlyangPharmaceutical, which was dropped from the program last year, offered the lowest price of 10,100 won for 1.7 million doses. Sanofi-Aventis Korea will provide two million vaccines, Boryung Corp. 1.6 million and Korea Vaccine 1.75 million.

GC Biopharma Co. had the highest price among the six companies at 10,700 and will provide 1.74 million doses.

Before the pandemic, SK Bioscience had supplied 164.7 billion won per year worth of its vaccine Skycellflu right before production was stopped in 2020, beating out GC Biopharma's GC Flu with 139.9 billion won for first place. Since SK Bioscience left the market in 2021, its rival has regained the lead.

Write to Ji-Hyun Lee at bluesky@hankyung.com