HPV vaccine makers eye growth overseas

A medical staff member injects domestically produced bivalent HPV vaccine to a girl in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, in May 2023. According to its latest financial report, in the first three quarters, Beijing-based Wantai Biopharm, a major HPV vaccine producer in China, reported revenue of 1.95 billion yuan, down 60.8 percent year-on-year, while net profit stood at 267 million yuan, a significant decline of 85.25 percent. Similarly, over the same period, another major player in the country's HPV vaccine market — Kunming, Yunnan province-based Walvax Biotechnology — also recorded revenue of 2.14 billion yuan, a decrease of 32.2 percent year-on-year, with a net profit of 256 million yuan, down 53.7 percent, which points to sustained sales pressure on vaccine companies in the sector. Launched in May 2020, its batch release volume reached over 2 million doses that year, generating nearly 700 million yuan in annual revenue and accounting for 80 percent of the company's vaccine business. A historical point came when earlier this year, Wantai's bivalent HPV vaccine was priced at 86 yuan per dose in Jiangsu province's government procurement project, marking the official entry of domestic bivalent HPV vaccines into the "below 100 yuan" era.