The WHO said that a single dose of HPV vaccination can effectively prevent cervical cancer, and Zhifei Biology once fell by more than 18%

Recently, the WHO said that a single dose of HPV vaccine can prevent cervical cancer. On April 14, Zhifei Bio dived in the disk. As of press time, it fell by more than 18%, and the turnover exceeded 4.1 billion yuan.

On the news side, the World Health Organization recently released a message on its official website that the WHO held a meeting of the Strategic Expert Group on Immunization from April 4 to 7 to review the evidence for single-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. It was concluded that a single dose of HPV vaccination was effective in preventing cervical cancer caused by persistent HPV infection and was comparable to the effectiveness of the two- or three-dose regimen.

Zhifei Biology's main business includes the research and development, production and sales of vaccines and biological products. According to the research report of Zhongtai Securities, according to the data of the Central Inspection Institute, as of March 27, Zhifei Bio's agent Merck issued 7 batches of 4-valent HPV vaccine and 18 batches of 9-valent HPV vaccine (a total of 77 batches were issued in 2021), with a total of about 5-6 million issued.

On March 30, Zhifei Bio disclosed its first-quarter performance forecast, and it is expected to make a profit of 1.782 billion yuan to 1.970 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 90% to 110% over the same period last year. Zhifei Bio said that during the reporting period, the main reason for the company's performance growth was that the number of batches of mainly products on sale increased significantly, while the marketing team actively carried out various promotional services and achieved good results.

The WHO said that hpv vaccine can prevent cervical cancer in a single dose, and how much it affects the vaccine industry

Persistent infection with high-risk HPV is the main cause of many cancers, and cervical cancer is the most common of the multiple cancers associated with high-risk persistent HPV infection. In cervical cancer, more than 70% of cervical cancer is caused by hpv-16 and HPV-18, two high-risk types of HPV. Cervical cancer is also a cancer with a clear cause, can be prevented early, and is expected to be eliminated, and prevention is divided into three levels, of which primary prevention is mainly preventive HPV vaccination. HPV vaccination can effectively prevent about 70%-90% of cervical cancer, and is also regarded as one of the main means and effective means of preventing cervical cancer.

SAGE's current new recommendations are based on concerns about the slow introduction of HPV vaccines into immunization programmes and low overall population coverage, particularly in poorer countries.

Globally, the use of life-saving vaccines has been slow, with coverage well below the 90 percent target in some countries and only 13 percent of the three doses of vaccines by 2020, the WHO said. The slow rate of HPV vaccination and low coverage are also constrained by factors such as insufficient supply and high vaccination costs.

Back in November 2020, the WHO released the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, one of which aims to have 90% of girls complete HPV vaccination by 15 years by 2030. WHO Assistant Director-General Nothemba Simelela currently believes that the single dose HPV vaccination proposal has the potential to drive the target faster, while at the same time, the cost of a single dose is lower, less resource-intensive and easier to manage, making re-vaccination campaigns for different age groups easier to carry out, reducing the challenge of having to follow up on multiple vaccinations, and saving health spending and human resources for other health priorities.

Currently, SAGE recommends the following immunization procedures: single or two doses for women aged 9-14 years (the highest priority population), single or two doses for women aged 15-20 years, and two doses for women over 20 years of age (6 months apart).

In 2021, global HPV vaccine sales totaled approximately $6.3 billion. Up to now, there are five HPV vaccines approved for marketing worldwide, namely GlaxoSmithKline's bivalent HPV vaccine, Merck's quadrivalent HPV and nine-valent HPV vaccine, and Wantai Biotech (603392. SH) bivalent HPV vaccine and Watson Bio (300142.SZ) divalent HPV vaccine, the latter two companies are Chinese companies.

In the mainland, all five vaccines have been approved for marketing. Judging from the immunization procedures for HPV vaccines approved for marketing, two or three doses are basically used, and there has not been a single dose. From the pricing point of view, in the mainland, the price of each dose of listed products is more than 300 yuan, or even more than 1,000 yuan.

According to the above recommendations, some people believe that the future market demand for HPV vaccines may face a certain decline.

Previously, Frost & Sullivan had said that in terms of the total population, HPV vaccination rates in China are generally low, less than 1%, and even given the expected increase in HPV vaccination rates, there will still be 234 million women aged 9 to 45 in China who will not be vaccinated against HPV by 2025, assuming three doses per person, an additional 701.7 million doses may be required. Based on the number of people vaccinated by Frost & Sullivan, the additional demand is reduced to 467.8 million doses assuming two doses per person, and 233.9 million doses if each person is given a single dose.

The WHO said its recommendations would be updated after further consultations with stakeholders.

However, whether the WHO's recommendations can be truly implemented still faces a game with relevant HPV vaccine manufacturers.

Some HPV vaccine manufacturers told the first financial reporter that the WHO's proposal is to solve the huge gap between the supply and demand of HPV vaccines, but this proposal does not currently have legal effect, and it is inconsistent with the vaccination instructions that have been listed, and the latter vaccination instructions have legal effect. "For vaccine companies that have already been listed, if they rush to reduce the number of vaccinations at this time, they may cause some disputes."

(Source: CBN)