SK Bioscience's shingles vaccine Skyzoster, launched only two years ago, has been quickly expanding its share in the Korean shingles vaccine market dominated by MSD's Zostavax.

SK Bioscience's shingles vaccine Skyzoster

"We have sold 1 million doses of Skyzoster until the end of last year, acquiring 47.4 percent of the shingles vaccine market in the fourth quarter of last year," the company said. "We also expect to surpass 100 billion won ($82.9 million) in sales soon."

MSD still has a slight edge over Skyzoster with a market share of 52.6 percent. Given that MSD nearly monopolized the market as recently as two years ago, however, SK Bioscience’s advance is not an easy feat. The company emphasized that Skyzoster is Korea’s first shingles vaccine product and the world’s second.

"Considering that medicinal products begin to get prescribed in earnest after assessing the market response, we believe that Skyzoster’s emergence as a blockbuster product in just two years of the launch is exceptional," the company said.

The company evaluates its success was based on the advantages of excellent clinical data, state-of-the-art production facilities, formulations with improved inoculation convenience, diversification of sales through co-promotion, and reasonable price of the treatment, SK Bioscience added.

As the safety and efficacy of the new vaccine have been verified in the local market, the company expects that Skyzoster will be able to acquire an even larger market share in the future.

SK Bioscience plans to expand its market share by stably supplying Skyzoster in the local market, while launching the drug globally, starting with emerging markets, including Southeast Asian countries.

"As population aging progresses, interest in shingles vaccines have increased, which will help fuel the sales growth of Skyzoster," SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong said. "We will also introduce our product to the overseas markets to pursue our goal of becoming a global company."

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