Daewoong Pharmaceutical said that it has launched Vivotif, an oral typhoid fever vaccine, in the local market.

Daewoong's oral typhoid fever vaccine Vivotif

Vivotif is the only typhoid fever vaccine in Korea that received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency. Daewoong Pharmaceutical secured local rights for Vivotif in March last year.

“One of the biggest advantages of Vivotif is its convenience as the product is an oral vaccine,” the company said. “It is easy to inoculate children and adults with syringe fears as it is the only oral typhoid vaccine currently sold in Korea.”

Vivotif is based on live attenuated strain Salmonella typhi Ty21a and has sold more than 150 million doses worldwide, proving its efficacy and safety.

In a clinical study of 10,594 patients in Santiago, Chile, where typhoid fever was present, a single dose of Vivotif showed that it prevented typhoid fever in 71 percent of the patients in its first year, and 67 percent of the patients after three years.

Also, the follow-up of the clinical participants showed that the prophylactic effect of one to three years was 67 percent, while the prophylactic effect of one to seven years was 62 percent.

“We expect that by launching Vivotif, we will supply high-quality vaccines in the age where we have more than 30 million people traveling overseas,” Daewoong’s marketing director, Lee Chang-jae, said. “This will allow an increase in the vaccination rate and contribute to the prevention of infectious diseases.”

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