Planning to Double Eupolio Production Capacity by 2022
LG Chem announced on Jan. 7 that it has signed a contract with the UNICEF to supply US$80 million worth of polio vaccine Eupolio from 2021 to 2022 in order to combat the disease, which is making a comeback around the world.
Eupolio is a next-generation inactivated vaccine that has undergone an additional process of chemically eliminating the pathogenicity of a virus using an attenuated virus. The vaccine has advantages in terms of safety than current activated vaccines. The existing polio vaccine is Salk IPV, which poses a risk of causing environmental safety accidents when exposed to viruses due to problems with production facilities.
LG Chem received the world's first pre-qualification (PQ) approval for Eupolio as a Sabin IPV vaccine in late December 2020. The deal with UNICEF came three weeks after the approval. The company will supply the vaccine to 70 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia starting from next month.
The contract will make LG Chem one of the top three suppliers of polio vaccines to the UNICEF as the company will account for more than 20 percent of UNICEF's procurement volume. LG Chem is planning to actively contribute to resolving public health problems for children around the world. It plans to double its capacity to produce Eupolio by 2022 to address a vaccine supply shortage.
LG Chem rapidly developed clinical products and processes through active facility investment since the beginning of the development of the vaccine. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest health-related support organization in the world had provided a total of US$57.6 million in support funds for the Eupolio and Eupolio-based Mixed Vaccine Projects since 2017 by highly recognizing LG Chem's capabilities. LG Chem succeeded in commercializing the product by reducing the development period from nearly 10 years to six years thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s support and effective clinical and licensing strategies.
Meanwhile, Eupolio is the third vaccine that LG Chem supplies to the world through international relief organizations, following B hepatitis vaccine Euvax in 1996 and mixed vaccine Eupenta in 2016. The company is currently developing a new mixed vaccine based on Eupolio.