GC, formerly known as Green Cross, said Monday that it plans to establish an affiliate in the U.S. to develop next-generation vaccines.

The company, named Curevo, plans to conduct a clinical trial on CRV-101, a shingles vaccine developed jointly by GC and Mogam Institute for Biomedical Research, in the second half of this year.

The drug candidate is the first that GC will work on a high-end vaccine for adults.

“Our next-generation shingles vaccine will have technological competitiveness over existing products of multinational pharmaceutical companies,” the company said.

The drugmaker will come up with a wholly-different product instead of pursuing price competition with similar vaccines, it said.

“It is also noteworthy that the company established an affiliate in the U.S. to develop the vaccine rather than developing it locally,” the company wrote. “For local pharmaceutical companies, it is incredibly hard to enter the U.S. market and present so-called ‘global product’ as the country applies the most advanced standards in the world, and accounts for more than half of the premium vaccine market.”

Thus, GS plans to expand to other markets based on approvals from the U.S., the company said.

Curevo will focus on the clinical development of the next-generation shingles vaccine, as well as the recruitment of local experts.

The company has already established a technical and workforce partnership with the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI). Dr. Corey Casper of the IDRI, an infectious disease practitioner with expertise in large-scale clinical trials in North America, will be in charge of the project.

Premium vaccines market is expanding rapidly with double-digit growth rates each year. In particular, the pharmaceutical industry expects that the $800 million global market for shingles vaccine will double in the next decade.

Copyright © KBR Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited