SK bioscience gains highest market share in shingles vaccine in Korea

Sky Zoster [Photo provided by SK bioscience]

SK bioscience’s shingles vaccine, Sky Zoster, has set a new milestone, raising its market share for three consecutive quarters this year.

According to global market tracker IMS on Wednesday, Sky Zoster commanded 56 percent of the market in the third quarter of this year in terms of doses sold, following 51 percent in the first quarter and 52 percent in the second quarter.

Sky Zoster, a live attenuated vaccine independently developed by SK bioscience, was launched in December 2017 as a pre-filled syringe formulation.

Health experts say the prevention of shingles will be increasingly important given the country’s rapid aging population. Shingles, a painful skin rash, occurs with a reactivation of varicella-zoster virus, which remains dormant in the nerve tissue of people who had chickenpox. It usually affects elderly people who have low immunity.

According to health insurance reimbursement data, the number of patients with shingles recently stood at 720,000 in Korea, a significant rise from 480,000 10 years ago.

Sky Zoster of SK bioscience and Zostavax of MSD are currently on sale in Korea. GSK Plc is scheduled to launch its shingles vaccine Shingrix this month, which will intensify competition.