Research & Development

GSK has announced that it has come to an exclusive agreement with Chingqing Zhifei Biological Products to co-promote GSK’s shingles vaccine, Shingrix, in China for an initial three years, with the option to extend the partnership further.

This partnership is intended to combine the scale and expertise of the two companies and extend the availability of the vaccine throughout China in order to support the rapid expansion of patient access to Shingrix and future possible indications.

The partnership will begin on 1 January 2024, with Zhifei gaining exclusive rights to import and distribute the vaccine in China, while GSK will co-promote the vaccine by raising awareness of the importance of shingles vaccination among healthcare professionals within hospitals and community health centres.

Luke Miels, chief commercial officer of GSK, commented: “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.”

Earlier in 2023, GSK announced positive results from the phase 4 ZOSTER-076 trial, which demonstrated Shingrix’s 100% vaccine efficacy in preventing shingles in Chinese adults over the age of 50.