Current status of production and market of human vaccine products in Korea

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to build basic information related to the production and market of human vaccine products in Korea, which can be an important indicator to provide basic data in practical use. MATERIALS AND METHODS Statistical data were obtained from the Bank of Korea, Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association, and Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. RESULTS Vaccines are the 10th ranked drugs in the classification of whole complete preparated drugs. The production output of vaccines in Korea was 392.2 billion KRW in 2011, comprising 2.83% of complete preparated drug production output (13 trillion 880.8 billion KRW) and 2.54% of medical-pharmaceutical product output (15 trillion 440.3 billion KRW). The market scale of vaccines in Korea was 710 billion KRW in 2011, with an annual average growth rate of 11% in the past 6 years, comprising 2% of vaccine market in the world. There was also a significant increase in essential vaccines and other preventive vaccines in a global scale. CONCLUSION Vaccines have the potential of becoming an emerging attractive industry. Based on the current analysis about the production of vaccine products and market scale, further development of the vaccine industry is expected in Korea.