Seqirus’s flu vaccine fails to gain NIP status

Six companies selected as final winners in 2026–2027 influenza season tender

Seqirus bid below the estimated price but was pushed to 7th place due to the ‘early fulfillment of supply volume.’

CSL Seqirus Korea’s ambitious first bid to enter the National Immunization Program (NIP) has ended in failure. The company narrowly missed making the list in a fiercely competitive Public Procurement Service tender.

According to industry and the Public Procurement Service (PPS) sources on June 10, the bid opening results for the ‘2026–2027 seasonal influenza vaccine procurement tender,’ for which the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) participated as the demand agency, showed that six companies were selected as final winners: SK Bioscience, GC Biopharma, Korea Vaccine, Sanofi-Aventis Korea, Boryung Biopharma, and Ilyang Pharmaceutical.

The tender was conducted under a competitive desired-quantity bidding system, in which vaccine quantities are allocated to companies offering the lowest prices below the government's estimated price of KRW 9,690.07 per dose.

The main topic of interest in this year's tender was whether CSL Seqirus Korea could successfully enter the NIP market. Seqirus bid at KRW 9,218 per dose and offered 1.2 million doses. Although the bid price was below the government's estimate, it was not low enough to surpass aggressive pricing from major domestic and international vaccine manufacturers.

SK Bioscience submitted the lowest bid at KRW 8,851 per dose for 2.7 million doses, securing first place. GC Biopharma followed at KRW 8,920 for 2.66 million doses, Korea Vaccine at KRW 8,952 for 1.9 million doses, Sanofi-Aventis Korea at KRW 8,965 for 2.25 million doses, Boryung Biopharma at KRW 9,005 for 1.77 million doses, and then Ilyang Pharmaceutical at KRW 9,199 for 1.5 million doses.

In contrast, Seqirus Korea's bid of KRW 9,218, which was just KRW 19 higher than Ilyang's, placed the company seventh. Although KDCA originally sought to procure 12.33 million doses, the cumulative winning bids had already secured 12.78 million doses by the time the sixth-ranked bidder was selected. As a result, Seqirus was automatically excluded from the final list.

Final Successful Bidders for the 2026-2027 Influenza Vaccine Procurement Tender (Captured from the KONEPS/Nara Market Website)

On KDCA’s part, the outcome represented a significant cost-saving achievement. The agency secured an additional 450,000 doses while paying prices substantially below its originally estimated unit cost of KRW 9,949. For participating companies, however, the tender effectively became a near-loss-making price war.

CSL Seqirus Korea is the Korean subsidiary of CSL Seqirus, one of the world's leading influenza vaccine companies. In March, the company received Korean regulatory approval for Flucelvax Prefilled Syringe (a cell-cultured influenza surface antigen vaccine), raising expectations for a new generation of influenza vaccines in the domestic market.

The vaccine is a WHO-recommended egg-free trivalent influenza vaccine produced using cell culture technology rather than eggs, reducing the risk of virus mutations that can occur during manufacturing. It is indicated for the prevention of influenza A and B infections in individuals aged six months and older.

Seqirus Korea had hoped to secure stable NIP volumes through government procurement and rapidly expand its market share. However, following this setback, the company will now need to compete exclusively in the ‘private-pay 9non-reimbursed) vaccination market.’

With established players such as GC Biopharma and SK Bioscience already leveraging their government-procurement volumes to strengthen market positions, industry observers are watching closely to see whether Seqirus Korea can carve out a niche in the non-reimbursed private market through collaboration with local partners, including Samjin Pharmaceutical, and through differentiated distribution strategies.