Chi­na green­lights home­grown pneu­mo­coc­cal, HPV vac­cines for the mar­ket — break­ing grips by Pfiz­er, Mer­ck

Pfiz­er’s dom­i­nat­ing pneu­mo­coc­cal vac­cine Pre­vnar 13 fi­nal­ly has a ri­val — and it’s nei­ther Mer­ck nor any of the small biotechs try­ing to top­ple the megablock­buster.

Chi­na has ap­proved a pneu­mo­coc­cal 13-va­lent con­ju­gate vac­cine de­vel­oped by a unit of Wal­vax Biotech­nol­o­gy, as an al­ter­na­tive op­tion main­ly for in­fants and chil­dren 6 weeks to 5 years old. On the same day, reg­u­la­tors al­so an­nounced they have OK’d Cecol­in, an HPV vac­cine for women aged 9 to 45 de­vel­oped by Xi­a­men In­no­vax.

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