● ‘SKY Cell Flu’ Selected for 2018 Korea Highest Brand
- Selected as first place in the vaccine category of ‘Highest Brand,’ a brand performance certification system
- Korea’s only cell culture flu vaccine SKY Cell Flu, awarded for the fourth year in a rowThe cell culture flu vaccine ＇SKY Cell Flu＇ has been selected as a top brand for the fourth consecutive year.
SK bioscience Co., Ltd. announced on the 31st that the cell culture flu vaccine ＇SKY Cell Flu＇ won the first place in the vaccine category of ＇2018 Korea Highest Brand.＇
The Korea Highest Brand is a system that selects major domestic brands that created the excellent value for a year in different categories and awards them. Brand value is measured through KBHI, an evaluation model co-developed by Brandstock Inc., a brand value evaluation company, and Yonsei Business Research Institute to select awards.
This year marks the13th annual ceremony for Korea Highest Brand, which encompasses approximately 30,000 consumers and professional panelists evaluating the innovations, differentiation, trend leading power, and product reliability.
SK bioscience＇s SKY Cell Flu was selected as the brand representing the market for the fourth consecutive year by receiving a high score in assessment categories such as innovation and reliability.
SK bioscience launched the world＇s first quadrivalent cell culture flu vaccine in 2016, following Korea’s first trivalent cell culture flu vaccine in 2015 with the SKY Cell Flu brand. SKY Cell Flu has exceeded the domestic cumulative sales volume of 14 million doses (single dose is a single administration amount) for the past three years and about 5 million doses were supplied to the domestic market this year.
This production technology of cell culture flu vaccine is fast and efficient because it utilizes animal cells rather than fertilized cells. In addition, unlike the production method of fertilized cells, the production period is shortened by half without using antibiotics or preservatives in the manufacturing process, so that it can respond faster to urgent situations caused by atypical influenza virus strains.
Recently, CDC, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that a cell culture flu vaccine could provide a better preventive effect because it can avoid the micro changes of the type A H3N2 virus that often occurs during the culturing period of fertilized cells.
Based on these advantages, SK bioscience has exported its high-efficiency flu vaccine production technology of cell culture method to a global vaccine company last February.
SK bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong said, "We will take the lead in promoting the health of humankind as a ＇Global Innovator of Vaccine Technology＇ that will lead changes in the global market beyond the expectations of the domestic market."
