The domestic herpes zoster vaccine market is about to enter the "Three Kingdoms Kill".

On the evening of February 9th, Green Bamboo Biotechnology (02480. HK) announced that its application for the marketing of its recombinant herpes zoster vaccine LZ901 has been accepted by the National Medical Products Administration.

If successfully launched, this vaccine will become the third herpes zoster vaccine to be launched in China.

Currently, there are two herpes zoster vaccines on the market, one of which is a domestically produced vaccine manufactured by BioNTech; One is an imported vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Herpes zoster is an infectious skin disease caused by the reactivation of varicella zoster virus that has long been lurking in the posterior root ganglia or cranial ganglia of the spinal cord. As people grow older, their physiological and metabolic functions and immune functions gradually decline, and the risk of suffering from infectious diseases such as herpes zoster increases. Getting vaccinated against shingles is an effective measure to prevent shingles. With the acceleration of the aging process of China's population, the herpes zoster vaccine market is considered to have a promising future.

However, judging from the two shingles vaccines that have already been launched in China, it is still not easy to break through the vaccination market for middle-aged and elderly people.

The herpes zoster vaccine from Baike Biotechnology was approved for domestic market in January 2023. That year, this vaccine briefly doubled the company's performance growth rate, but this highlight only lasted for one year.

Recently, according to the 2024 performance forecast released by Baike Biotechnology, it is expected that the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company in 2024 will decrease by 52.10% year-on-year to 60.08%. The company explained that due to factors such as reduced public willingness to receive vaccines and decreased market demand, the sales and use of the company's live attenuated herpes zoster vaccine have been greatly affected, resulting in a decrease in the number of vaccinations and shipments, and a year-on-year decline in operating revenue and net profit.

In the global vaccine market, GlaxoSmithKline's herpes zoster vaccine is one of the major varieties. In 2024, GlaxoSmithKline's global sales of herpes zoster vaccine reached £ 3.364 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1%. However, GlaxoSmithKline revealed that the sales of this vaccine have declined in China.

As a latecomer, Green Bamboo Biological's herpes zoster vaccine attempts to form differentiated competition. Specifically, although the herpes zoster vaccine from Green Bamboo Biotechnology targets people aged 40 and above, similar to that of Baike Biotechnology, the vaccine technology route is different. It adopts a recombinant technology route, and the vaccine protection rate may be better than that of Baike Biotechnology's attenuated live herpes zoster vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline's herpes zoster vaccine is also a recombinant vaccine, but it is targeted at individuals aged 50 and above. Compared to this, the population vaccinated with herpes zoster vaccine by Green Bamboo Biotechnology has increased by 40 to 49 years old. In addition, the pricing after listing may be lower than GlaxoSmithKline's shingles vaccine.

However, how to jointly expand the market cake of herpes zoster vaccines in China is still a problem that vaccine companies need to solve.