Chinese women’s ‘HPV vaccine freedom’ seems to have gone one step further.
On March 24, the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration showed that Watson Bio’s recombinant bivalent human papillomavirus (referred to as “HPV”) vaccine was officially approved for marketing. Subsequently, Watson Biology stated to the Health Knowledge Bureau that the company is actively putting into production and making every effort to ensure supply.
Health Knowledge Bureau has learned that Watson’s bivalent HPV vaccine trade name is “Wo Zehui”, which is produced by subsidiary Yuxi Runze. The two specifications are 319 yuan per injection and 329 per injection. Yuan. According to the overall plan of Watson Bio, a production base with an annual capacity of 30 million doses has been built.
After Wantai Bio, Watson Bio became the second company in China capable of producing bivalent HPV vaccine.
Before Wantai, the domestic bivalent HPV vaccine was controlled by GlaxoSmithKline, and the quadrivalent and nine-valent HPV vaccines were exclusively supplied by Merck. For a period of time, China’s HPV vaccine was “hard to find”, especially the nine-valent HPV vaccine. Some netizens even speculated that this is “hunger marketing” initiated by foreign pharmaceutical companies.
The launch of two domestic bivalent HPV vaccines will greatly improve the current situation of “HPV vaccine anxiety” in China. At present, the penetration rate of HPV vaccine in China is not high, and there is still a large gap in the market. The bivalent vaccine can make up for the vacancy of the nine-valent vaccine to a certain extent. The battle between the three majors will bring about major changes in the Chinese HPV market.
HPV vaccine gap exceeds 1 billion, localization is the trend
As the most common gynecological tumor, cervical cancer has received attention from all walks of life with the trend of younger incidence in recent years.
According to the “2020 Latest Global Cancer Burden Data”, the annual incidence of cervical cancer in China has exceeded 110,000, ranking tenth in the number of new cancer cases in China. Although surgery and drugs can effectively control the prognosis of cervical cancer, many clinical experts have told the Health Knowledge Bureau that vaccination is one of the most effective ways to fight the disease caused by viral infection.
However, the current market situation of HVP vaccines in China is that long-term queues and higher-priced purchases may not guarantee successful vaccination. According to a data from the China Institute for Drug Control, based on 356 million females of school-age and 3 injections per person, the gap in my country’s HPV vaccine market exceeds 1 billion.
Domestic pharmaceutical companies have been developing HPV vaccines. Watson’s “Wazehui” has undergone 17 years of research and development, and is produced using the Pichia pastoris expression system. Watson Bio said: From the expression platform to the establishment of fermentation, purification and preparation platforms, the development of monitoring methods, and the protection of intellectual property rights, it is difficult to develop; especially the multi-center clinical trials involving 14,000 people nationwide are very difficult. Big.
The rapid launch of the domestic bivalent HPV vaccine will form a pattern in which domestic products will replace imported products. Moreover, the popularization of the bivalent HPV vaccine among the appropriate age groups will break the market pattern of the quadrivalent and nine-valent HPV vaccines and end the “HPV vaccine anxiety” of Chinese women.
Since 2021, pilot policies for free HPV vaccination have been introduced in many places across the country. WHO proposed in the “Global Strategy to Accelerate Cervical Cancer Elimination” that by 2030, 90% of girls should be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine before the age of 15. The domestic bivalent HPV vaccine will undoubtedly provide China with an important role in achieving this goal. support.
But on the Internet, it seems that only the “nine-valent HPV vaccine” is considered an HPV vaccine.
In fact, the bivalent HPV vaccine has been able to meet the prevention needs. “HPV16 and 18 are the two main viruses that cause cervical cancer, with an incidence rate of more than 70%.” Li Hongxia, director of the Baiziwan District of Beijing Hemei Women’s and Children’s Hospital, said that the bivalent vaccine can basically achieve the preventive effect. Liu Jun, deputy chief physician of the obstetrics and gynecology department of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, also said: Blind vaccination of the nine-valent HPV vaccine is not recommended, and more importantly, it is vaccinated as soon as possible at the appropriate age.
The battle for the market started, and the intensified market competition led to a “price reduction”
At the end of 2019, after Wantai Bio’s bivalent HPV vaccine “Xin Ke Ning” was approved for marketing, the market sales rapidly increased. According to Wantai Bio’s financial report, the actual sales volume of the company’s “Xin Ke Ning” will exceed 10 million bottles in 2021. Calculated at a minimum of 329 yuan per bottle, the sales will be about 3.47 billion yuan.
Wantai Bio’s market performance has inspired other domestic vaccine companies. So far, domestic companies such as Ruike Bio, Recreation Guard, Bowei Bio and other companies are deploying HPV vaccines. In addition to bivalent, quadrivalent, and nine-valent, Sinopharm Group, Shenzhou Cell, etc. are even deploying eleven-valent, fourteen-valent equivalent to higher-priced HPV vaccines.
However, for the current market, the number of people of appropriate age is limited, and it is the focus of existing products to seize the market as soon as possible.
In November 2021, Watson Bio’s investor relations activities publicly disclosed that the bivalent HPV vaccine will be launched in parallel in two ways: self-built teams and promoters.
Wantai Bio has been included in free vaccination programs in many places, which is also one of the main promotion channels for bivalent HPV vaccines. When Watson’s varieties are put on the market, they will inevitably compete for “immunization programs” everywhere.
GSK, on the other hand, seems to be feeling the chill in the market right now. On the whole, GSK’s batches of vaccine products have gradually decreased, and team adjustments will be initiated in 2021.
GSK’s bivalent HPV vaccine “Cervarix” was approved for marketing in China on July 18, 2016, and is the first HPV vaccine to be marketed in China. This global “heavyweight variety” had high hopes by GSK. But the good times didn’t last long, and “Ciri Shi” had long since lost his style.
According to the data from the China Pharmaceutical Industry Information Center, in 2020, the batch issuance of Wantai Bivalent cervical cancer vaccine is 2,456,100, and the batch issuance of GSK is only 689,700.
This time, with the addition of Watson to the competition for the bivalent HPV vaccine, GSK’s position is even more precarious.
This judgment is based on simple cost-effectiveness. The Health Knowledge Bureau found that the price of GSK’s “Cerice” when it was listed in 2016 was 580 yuan per bottle; in 2019, the listed price of Wantai’s “Xin Ke Ning” was 339 yuan per bottle. Watson lowered the price of “Wazehui” to 319 yuan each.
Clearly, a “price war” has begun.
Zhongtai Securities has reminded the majority of investors that as the bivalent HVP vaccines are successively approved and marketed, there will be a risk of price reductions.
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