GSK inks $3bn partnership to market Shingrix in China

Over a three-year period, Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products will co-promote GSK’s shingles vaccine Shingrix in China to healthcare professionals and specific locations.

China’s largest vaccine firm by revenue, Zhifei, will buy £2.5 billion ($3 billion) agreed volumes of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) non-live, recombinant subunit vaccine for the prevention of shingles (herpes zoster, Shingrix over a three-year period.

GSK said the collaboration, set to start on January 1, 2024, will expand Shingrix’s availability in China through co-promoting the vaccine to various healthcare professionals and over 30,000 points of vaccination. Zhifei will have the right to import and distribute Shingrix in China and both parties aim to raise awareness of the importance of the shingles vaccine to professionals, hospital settings, and local health centers.

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“This partnership is consistent with our focus on products with a high and durable level of differentiation. It materially expands the number of Chinese adults who can benefit from Shingrix and includes the option to extend the collaboration to include our novel RSV vaccine Arexvy,” said Luke Miels, chief commercial officer, GSK.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Arexvy earlier this year. Moreover, GSK said the partnership with Zhifei supports its commitment to doubling global Shingrix sales by 2026.

Shingrix demand

GSK launched Shingrix in October 2017 and saw demand rapidly outstrip supply. As a result, the firm began to expand its network with a facility in France, a $100 million investment in in Hamilton, Montan, and – in 2020 – a $564 million investment in Wavre, Belgium.

In September,  the firm invested a further $268 million at its Wavre site to build a manufacturing center and claimed this would be the largest vaccine production site in the world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company reported a decline in Shingrix sales of 47%, but less than a year later, the vaccine bounced back in a post-pandemic setting, with Shingrix pulling in $866 million of sales in the first quarter of 2022 and, $3 billion for the full year.