Chinese Pharmaceutical Industry Competes for Vaccine Market Share

China’s National Medical Products Administration has announced that two Chinese pharmaceutical companies, Walvax Biotechnology and Innovax, have been approved to start selling their own version of drugs previously available only through global pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.¹

Cecolin, developed by Innovax, will compete in the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) arena against Merck’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix, while Walvax’s pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine will go head-to-head in competition with Pfizer’s Prevnar 13, previously the only 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine available worldwide. The huge Chinese market has been a major factor in the burgeoning global sales figures for both Merck’s Gardasil and Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 vaccines.

Pfizer Sees Sales of Prevnar Vaccine in China Boost Profits