Cholera Vaccine Supply Expanding in 2024

Since the global shortage of oral cholera vaccines (OCV) is forecast to continue until 2025, including in the United States, two companies today announced they are taking action to increase supply.

On August 25, 2023, GC Biopharma confirmed that it signed an MOU with Eubiologics for a co-production of Euvichol®, a World Health Organization (WHO) certified vaccine.

The two companies will coproduce Eubiologics in the first half of 2024 to supply to UNICEF, which has requested an additional supply to cope with the recent spread of cholera infection in many regions, including Africa.

Kyeong-Ho Min, Vice President of Eubiologics, commented in a press release, "With the more frequent floods and droughts due to climate change and global warming, the world is currently experiencing rapid spread of cholera, leading to a shortage of vaccine supply."

Under the MOU, Eubiologics, a developer and producer of Euvichol, takes charge of the bulk vaccine production, and GC Biopharma will be in control of the packaging process, including vial bottling.

Euvichol is an OCV jointly developed by Eubiologics and the International Vaccine Institute that obtained WHO Prequalification in 2015.

Since supplying to UNICEF in 2016, the cumulative supply has exceeded 100 million vaccine doses. Eubiologics is currently providing 100% of cholera vaccines administered by UNICEF.

During 2023, about 49 million OCV doses have been requested, of which 39% were approved for 11 countries, according to WHO report #5. 

The WHO stated in August 2023, the current cholera epidemic has deteriorated. Therefore, the WHO assessed the risk of cholera outbreaks at the global level as very high.