Chile has selected China's vaccine company, Sinovac Biotech, as the exclusive supplier of its influenza vaccines for 2026 — awarding the company a contract for more than 8 million doses, Sinovac said in a statement on Sunday.

The first batch of vaccines is expected to arrive in Chile by the end of January 2026, ahead of the country's upcoming flu season, the company said.

The deal marks the second consecutive year that Sinovac has been chosen as Chile's sole supplier of influenza vaccines, reflecting continued recognition by Chile's public health system of the company's product quality and ability to fulfill international supply contracts, according to the statement.

The renewed contract builds on Sinovac's performance in 2025, when influenza vaccines supplied exclusively by the company were administered to more than 8.3 million people in Chile, helping the country achieve an inoculation rate of about 80 percent among its target population.

Sinovac said its cooperation with Chile has expanded beyond vaccine supply to include joint research and evidence generation. In August 2024, international journal Vaccines published results from a multinational clinical study of Sinovac's quadrivalent influenza vaccine. Conducted with research partners in Chile and other countries, the vaccine showed favorable immunogenicity and safety. The study found antibody responses against four influenza strains were higher than those generated by a foreign comparator vaccine.

More recently, a Phase III study in Chilean adults evaluating both humoral and cellular immune responses was published in Nature Communications, further supporting the vaccine's immunogenicity and safety profile, the company said.

Sinovac added that its influenza vaccines have now been approved or supplied in nearly 20 countries and regions worldwide, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 120 million doses.