GC Green Cross Presents 'Domestic Varicella Vaccine Usefulness' at Asian Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] GC Green Cross announced on the 28th that it participated as a sponsor in the ‘The 10th Asian Congress of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (ACPID 2022)’ held from the 26th to 28th at the Shilla Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, and conducted a symposium on its varicella vaccine ‘Varicella Vaccine’ and the usefulness of domestic varicella vaccines.

GC Green Cross was the first in Korea and the second in the world to develop the varicella vaccine ‘Sudubox’. In 2020, it released ‘Varicella Vaccine’, an antibiotic-free varicella vaccine that upgraded Sudubox by improving quality and productivity and increasing the live virus content.

The symposium was chaired by Professor Jinhan Kang of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital. The first speaker was Bongkyu Choi, Executive Director of Data Science at GC Green Cross, who presented on the trend of domestic incidence rates after the introduction of the National Immunization Program (NIP) and the effectiveness of ‘Varicella Vaccine’ using the MAV/06 strain. Executive Director Choi said, “Some studies suggesting an increase in domestic varicella incidence are based on underreported data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency,” adding, “A recent study based on data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service showed that the incidence rate of varicella with complications in Korea was 11 per 100,000 people in 2020.” He explained, “This is a 92% decrease compared to 10 years ago and is interpreted as a positive effect of the varicella vaccine’s inclusion in the National Immunization Program (NIP).”

Executive Director Choi also stated, “Research shows that the immunogenicity of varicella vaccines using the Oka strain and the MAV/06 strain are 99% and 98%, respectively, and the seropositive rates are 63?71% and 71?74%, showing no significant difference.” He continued, “The second dose of the varicella vaccine has a higher preventive effect than the first dose, and most developed countries support two doses of the varicella vaccine nationally,” adding, “It is desirable to include the second dose of the varicella vaccine in the NIP.”

The second speaker was Professor Hyunmi Kang of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, who presented clinical results of the varicella vaccine. Professor Kang reported, “When Sudubox and Varicella Vaccine were administered to 223 immunocompromised pediatric patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the immunogenicity was confirmed to be 92.7% and 100%, respectively.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.