263 Million Doses of Influenza Vaccine Awarded
in Line with WHO Recommendations
GC Green Cross announced on May 26 that it had won the bid for the largest quantity?2.63 million doses?in the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA)'s "2025-2026 Influenza Vaccine Procurement" tender held on May 23.
GC Green Cross has contributed to improving public health by reliably supplying flu vaccines every year. In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company played a key role in stabilizing public healthcare supply by continuously providing vaccines without interruption.
Starting from this round of the National Immunization Program (NIP), the KDCA has officially adopted the trivalent flu vaccine in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. This change follows the WHO's February announcement for the Northern Hemisphere, which set the flu vaccine virus composition as two types of influenza A (H1N1, H3N2) and one type of influenza B (Victoria).
Since March 2020, there have been no naturally occurring detections of the B/Yamagata lineage virus. Accordingly, the WHO has analyzed that this lineage has effectively disappeared, and global vaccine companies have been transitioning to trivalent flu vaccines and selling them in the global market starting from the 2024-2025 season.
Additionally, experts?including those at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)?have assessed that, with the B/Yamagata virus no longer circulating, there is no significant difference in preventive efficacy between trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines.
A GC Green Cross representative stated, "We will do our utmost to protect public health by stably supplying globally standardized vaccines in line with WHO recommendations to the domestic market."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
