Why China's flu vaccine supply is suffering this season

It isn’t a scene one would expect after the world battled a severe flu season. But in China, supply of flu vaccines this season has come down, thanks to reduced offering from Sanofi Pasteur, a high-profile vaccine scandal and a nasty fight for control over a Nasdaq-listed company.

The number of flu shots approved by Chinese regulators so far this season has fallen about 19% to about 15.2 million doses, according to data from August to Nov. 25 as disclosed by China’s National Institute for Food and Drug Control, which is responsible for vaccine inspection before each batch is released to the market.

Sanofi Pasteur, which was the largest contributor during the same period last year with about 5.5 million doses, significantly reduced its offering to merely 1.2 million.

Early in April, the French vaccine maker’s Chinese operation said it had noticed an efficacy decline in 15 batches of Vaxigrip. Although the company stressed the vaccines were still efficacious enough, it voluntarily recalled the batches as a precautionary measure.

"In 2017, we had to stop the distribution of specific batches of influenza vaccines in China as a precautionary measure. We returned to production in 2018 later than expected and were unable to supply as many vaccines as in previous years," a Sanofi Pasteur spokesman said in a statement to FiercePharma. "As a leading vaccines manufacturer, we are fully committed to providing vaccines that meet the highest quality standards." 

Sanofi is just part of China’s flu vaccine problem this season, though. Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences, the protagonist in a vaccine scandal that sparked a nationwide outcry and a humongous $1.3 billion fine, contributed about 1.4 million doses to the pool during the August-November period last year.

This year, that number is zero. Changsheng has practically gone defunct and its entire vaccine output has ceased. Ironically, the company was one of the first two companies to win Chinese approvals for quadrivalent flu vaccines just a month before its manufacturing breach surfaced in July.

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