SK Chemicals said Monday it has started supplying the world's first quadrivalent cell culture-based flu vaccine “SKY CellFlu Quadrivalent” for the local market.
SKY CellFlu is the first cell culture vaccine that covers two influenzas A strains (H1N1, H3N2) and two influenza B strains (Yamagata, Victoria), manufactured using aseptic culture medium instead of eggs employed in the traditional method. The new method does not require injections of antibiotics or preservatives.
Since the 2013-14 flu seasons, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have recommended tetravalent vaccines to provide a broader prevention than the existing trivalent vaccines.
SK ChemicalsSK케미칼 has started supplying the vaccine for hospitals and clinics across the nation with full-scale marketing activities.
Earlier this month, SK Chemicals has completed the production of about 5.35 million doses of the flu vaccines to be administered in Korea for the seasons of the end of 2017 and early 2018, making a 7 percent increase from the last year's supply of 5 million doses.
"As the flu spreads abroad in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Myanmar, domestic demand for the vaccination is expected to increase,” said Kim Kyung-geun김경근, SK Chemicals’ vaccine marketing manager. "We will contribute to a better public health based on the differentiated product characteristics of the cell-cultured tetravalent vaccines, which has a safer and broader preventive effect."