On February 2, 2024, a batch of trivalent influenza vaccine Anflu® produced by SINOVAC arrived in Santiago, Chile. This is the first time that SINOVAC influenza vaccines have exported finished influenza vaccines prepared from the candidate strains recommended by the World Health Organization for influenza vaccines in the southern hemisphere to a country in the southern hemisphere. The vaccine will be distributed to private vaccination centers in Santiago and other major cities across the country for the local 2024 Southern Hemisphere Influenza Season vaccination campaign starting in March.

Bárbara Ester Orellana Álvarez, SINOVAC's Director of Registration in Chile, said the vaccine is now safely stored in cold storage under license from the Chilean Institute of Public Health (ISP). The timely arrival of this shipment demonstrates SINOVAC's commitment to providing the Chilean people with vaccines of the highest quality and safety standards. "We are confident that this operation will contribute to influenza prevention and control in Chile in 2024."

The Chilean government has been actively promoting influenza vaccination, which is funded by the Chilean Ministry of Health and is free of charge for people aged 65 years and older, people with chronic diseases between the ages of 11 and 64, pregnant women, and relatives of premature or immunocompromised infants under six months of age who are less than 37 weeks pregnant. In addition, medical personnel, educators, public transportation workers, and military personnel are eligible for free influenza vaccination. In order to make it easier for the public to get vaccinated, medical teams also visit schools, kindergartens, and homes for the elderly, etc. In 2023, these groups will total nearly 8.9 million people.

In 2023, the Ministry of Health of Chile launched an influenza vaccination campaign on March 15, targeting specific population groups, with a strategic goal of covering 85% of priority groups. As of August 2023, Chile's influenza vaccine coverage in priority groups was 77.7%.

However, there are no local vaccine manufacturers in Chile and the supply of influenza vaccine is entirely dependent on imports. The supply of influenza vaccine is SINOVAC's first entry into the Chilean market. 2023 SINOVAC completed a Phase III international multicenter clinical study of a quadrivalent influenza virus lysate vaccine in Chile and the Philippines with local research partners, enrolling more than 2,000 volunteers aged 3 years and older in both countries. The results of the study showed that SINOVAC's quadrivalent influenza vaccine had a favorable safety profile, and the antibody levels for all types of influenza were superior or equivalent to those of the control quadrivalent influenza vaccine.

Recently, Mr. Mauricio Hurtado, Chilean Ambassador to China, said during his visit to SINOVAC that SINOVAC has a very good brand reputation in Chile and is also the most well-known Chinese brand in Chile. In order to safeguard the health of the people in Chile and more countries in South America, SINOVAC COVID-19 will, on the basis of its cooperation with Chile during the COVID-19 epidemic, further leverage its strengths in vaccine research and development and industrialization, and accelerate the cooperation between China and Chile in vaccine research and development and industrialization construction and other projects, so as to respond to pandemics of infectious diseases more efficiently and to enhance the accessibility and affordability of vaccines.

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