GSK has agreed a bumper deal with China’s largest vaccine company Zhifei for the exclusive rights to distribute the FTSE 100 firm’s shingles vaccine.
The pharmaceutical giant told shareholders on Monday the distribution agreement for Shingrix will be worth £2.5billion over an initial three-year period starting on 1 January 2024.
In a statement, the London-based firm, said: ‘The partnership supports and accelerates GSK’s commitment to double global Shingrix sales, reaching more than £4billion by 2026’.
The pharmaceutical giant said that the deal to sell Shingrix will be worth £2.5billion over an initial three-year period starting on 1 January 2024
It added: ‘Under the terms of the strategic partnership, Zhifei has granted GSK the right of first refusal to be their exclusive partner for any co-development and commercialisation of an RSV vaccine for older adults in China, paving the way for the companies to potentially partner on Arexvy upon approval in China.’
Luke Miels, chief commercial officer, of GSK, said: ‘This partnership is consistent with our focus on products with a high and durable level of differentiation. It materially expands the number of Chinese adults who can benefit from Shingrix and includes the option to extend the collaboration to include our novel RSV vaccine, Arexvy.’
Last week, the business reported that it had collected another bumper payout after offloading a stake in consumer healthcare spin-off Haleon.
The company told investors it had raised around £885.6million from selling 270 million Haleon shares at 328p each, reducing its shareholding in the company from 10.3 per cent to about 7.4 per cent.
When GSK and Pfizer spun off Haleon in July last year, the former retained a 12.9 per cent stake in the firm, while the American drugmaker owned just under a third of the shares.
GSK shares were up 1.08 per cent to 1,515.60p in early trading on Monday.
