Green Cross signs 42.6 bln won deal to provide new flu vaccines

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By Nam Kwang-sik
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korean drugmaker Green Cross Corp. said Monday
it has signed a 42.6 billion won (US$35.3 million) deal with the government to
provide 5.86 million doses of its Influenza A (H1N1) vaccine.
Green Cross will provide the flu vaccines by the end of November, the company
said in a regulatory filing.
Another local drugmaker, Boryung Pharmaceutical Co., said last Thursday that it
has applied for permission to start selling a Chinese-made vaccine for the flu in
South Korea within this year.
The company signed a contract with China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd. earlier this
month to import as many as 10 million doses of the vaccine, enough to inoculate
some 5 million people against the contagious disease.
As of Sept. 13, 9,968 confirmed flu cases were reported in South Korea, according
to data released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Nine South Koreans have died of flu-related complications since the disease was
first reported here in early May.
The country plans to inoculate some 13.4 million people, or 27 percent of the
nation's population, by next February.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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