Andalusia Splits Its Record Flu Vaccine Order Three Ways - Sanofi, Seqirus and AstraZeneca All Get a Piece

Standfirst

Ahead of what regional health officials are calling a record influenza vaccination campaign, the Andalusian Health Service has awarded its 2026-2027 flu vaccine framework across three manufacturers, Sanofi Aventis, Seqirus Spain and AstraZeneca Farmacéutica, rather than a single supplier. The split, worth up to €47.1 million across two possible campaign years, reflects a vaccination programme that increasingly needs different vaccine formulations for different age groups rather than one product for everyone.

Introduction

Not every vaccine campaign can run on a single product and Andalusia's seasonal flu programme is a clear illustration of why. A healthy 30 year old, a frail 85 year old in residential care and a toddler being vaccinated at nursery all need meaningfully different flu vaccines, different antigen doses, different formulations, in the toddler's case an entirely different delivery method (a nasal spray rather than an injection). The Andalusian Health Service's latest flu vaccine procurement reflects that reality directly: rather than awarding one contract to one manufacturer, it has split its supply framework across three companies, each covering different lots tailored to different parts of the vaccination programme.

The framework, structured across five lots grouped into three award decisions, will supply the region's flu vaccination campaign for the 2026-2027 season, with an option to extend into 2027-2028. Sanofi Aventis, Seqirus Spain and AstraZeneca Farmacéutica Spain were each awarded different portions of the programme, together valued at just over €21.3 million for the base 2026-2027 campaign, against a maximum possible framework ceiling of €47.1 million if the option to extend is exercised.

Why This Contract Matters

Andalusian health officials have described the coming campaign as one of their most ambitious yet, targeting more than two million vaccinated residents and initially budgeting for close to 1.955 million doses, with built in flexibility to expand supply by up to 20% depending on how the vaccination pace, epidemiological conditions and clinical need develop through the season. That kind of scale and flexibility only works if the underlying supply contract is structured to match the genuine diversity of the population being vaccinated.

This is also a useful illustration of how modern vaccination programmes have moved well past "one flu shot for everyone." Andalusia's current flu immunisation strategy uses distinct vaccine types for distinct groups: a nasal, live attenuated vaccine for young children, a high antigen formulation for very elderly or institutionalised residents and standard formulations for the broader adult population, each with different manufacturers, different production processes and different supply economics. A single supplier contract simply could not serve every one of those needs efficiently.

Contract Timeline

Contract Overview

The Servicio Andaluz de Salud's central services division ran an open procedure to establish a framework agreement, with reopening of competition, for the harmonised supply of influenza vaccines at a fixed unit price across all SAS centres for the 2026-2027 vaccination campaign, with an option to extend supply into the 2027-2028 campaign. The procurement was divided into five lots and the results were reported across three separate lot result groupings: Lots 1 and 3 together, Lots 2 and 5 together and Lot 4 on its own.

Sanofi Aventis, S.A. won the combined Lots 1 and 3, with a tender valued at €14,560,000, following three tenders received. Seqirus Spain, S.L. won the combined Lots 2 and 5, with a tender valued at €21,300,146.40, following two tenders received. Astrazeneca Farmacéutica Spain, S.L. won Lot 4 on its own, with a tender valued at €2,985,746.40, also following two tenders received. All three companies are classified as large economic operators and none of the tenders received across any of the three lot groups came from SMEs or from tenderers registered outside Spain.

Key Contract Details

Project Scope

The framework supplies influenza vaccines to every hospital, health management area and primary care district across the Andalusian public health system for the 2026-2027 seasonal campaign. Regional health officials have stated the initial budget is calibrated to supply approximately 1.955 million doses, with contractual flexibility to expand purchasing by up to 20% depending on how quickly the population is vaccinated, how the flu season develops epidemiologically and evolving clinical need, a built in buffer aimed at supporting a stated ambition to vaccinate more than two million people, prioritising residents over 60, young children, pregnant women and healthcare and care sector workers.

Andalusia's current flu immunisation programme uses several distinct vaccine formulations for different population groups: a live attenuated nasal spray vaccine for children roughly 24 to 59 months old, a high antigen dose formulation reserved for institutionalised elderly residents and those aged 80 and above, adjuvanted formulations for immunocompromised adults in certain age bands and standard egg or cell culture derived formulations for the broader population from six months of age onward. The three way split of this framework across Sanofi, Seqirus and AstraZeneca is consistent with each manufacturer supplying the specific formulation types their product portfolios cover within this broader clinical strategy.

About the Contracting Authority

Servicio Andaluz de Salud (SAS), the Andalusian Health Service, is the regional authority responsible for public healthcare across Andalusia, Spain's most populous autonomous community. Its central services division coordinates region wide procurement for recurring clinical needs, including the annual flu vaccination campaign, on behalf of the region's full network of hospitals, health management areas and primary care districts.

About the Organisations Involved

Sanofi Aventis, S.A., Winning Tenderer (Lots 1 & 3)

Sanofi Aventis, headquartered in Barcelona, is the Spanish arm of the French pharmaceutical group Sanofi, a major global vaccine manufacturer with an established flu vaccine portfolio, including its high antigen dose formulation used for elderly and institutionalised populations in several European national and regional immunisation programmes. Classified as a large economic operator, Sanofi's award of the combined Lots 1 and 3 continues an established supply relationship with SAS across previous vaccination campaigns.

Seqirus Spain, S.L., Winning Tenderer (Lots 2 & 5)

Seqirus, based in Barcelona, is a major global influenza vaccine manufacturer and a subsidiary of Australia's CSL group, known for cell culture based flu vaccine production, a manufacturing method that, unlike traditional egg based production, does not rely on chicken eggs as a growth medium for the vaccine virus. Seqirus's award of the combined Lots 2 and 5, the largest of the three individual tender values in this framework, is consistent with its product covering the broadest population segment within Andalusia's vaccination strategy.

Astrazeneca Farmacéutica Spain, S.L., Winning Tenderer (Lot 4)

AstraZeneca's Spanish subsidiary, headquartered in Madrid, is the manufacturer of a live attenuated, intranasally administered flu vaccine used specifically for young children in several European immunisation programmes, including Andalusia's, where it is recommended for children between 24 and 59 months of age. The comparatively smaller value of AstraZeneca's single lot award reflects the narrower population segment this specific paediatric formulation serves relative to the broader adult and elderly population covered by the other two winners.

Tribunal Administrativo de Recursos Contractuales de la Junta de Andalucía, Review Organisation

The Andalusian Regional Government's Administrative Tribunal for Contractual Appeals, based in Seville, is the designated review body for this procurement, providing the formal legal channel for any bidder wishing to contest aspects of the award across any of the three lot groups.

Procurement Analysis

Structuring this framework "with reopening of competition", as opposed to the single supplier, no reopening structure common in patent protected vaccine procurement, reflects the genuine multi product nature of the flu vaccine market. Unlike a single patented biologic with no competing product, seasonal flu vaccines are produced by multiple manufacturers each offering broadly comparable, though not identical, formulations for different population segments, allowing SAS to run a genuinely competitive process across five lots rather than defaulting to a sole source justification.

The three way lot allocation pattern is also informative. Rather than every lot going to a different single winner, two of the three manufacturers each won a combined pair of lots (Sanofi taking Lots 1 and 3 together, Seqirus taking Lots 2 and 5 together), while AstraZeneca won a single lot on its own, a pattern consistent with manufacturers bidding successfully across multiple lots suited to their specific product range, rather than the lots being contested independently by entirely different sets of competitors each time.

One notable feature worth flagging plainly: the notice's recorded "value of all contracts awarded in this notice" figure, €21,300,146.40, is identical to the individual tender value recorded for Seqirus's Lots 2 and 5 award alone. Summing all three individual winning tender values recorded elsewhere in the same notice, Sanofi's €14,560,000, Seqirus's €21,300,146.40 and AstraZeneca's €2,985,746.40, produces a considerably higher total of approximately €38.85 million. Public reporting on this same procurement cites the total flu vaccine acquisition cost for the 2026-2027 campaign at approximately €21.3 million, matching the notice's aggregate field rather than the sum of the three individual tenders.

Additional Procurement Facts

None of the tenders received across any of the three lot groups came from SMEs, from tenderers registered in other EEA countries or from non EEA bidders, all six tenders received across the three groups were submitted by large, Spain registered pharmaceutical companies, consistent with the concentrated nature of the global flu vaccine manufacturing market. No subcontracting was disclosed for any of the three winning tenders. The contract carries no EU funding, is financed entirely through Andalusia's regional health budget and is confirmed as covered by the WTO Government Procurement Agreement.

Market & Industry Perspective

The global influenza vaccine market is served by a relatively small group of large manufacturers, including Sanofi, Seqirus (CSL), AstraZeneca, GSK and others, each typically specialising in specific formulation types: standard inactivated vaccines, cell culture based production, high antigen dose formulations for elderly populations, adjuvanted formulations for immunocompromised groups and live attenuated nasal formulations for children. Regional and national health authorities across Europe routinely split flu vaccine procurement across multiple manufacturers precisely because no single company's product range typically covers every population segment a comprehensive vaccination programme needs to reach.

Andalusia's specific three way split in this framework, a broad population cell based vaccine from Seqirus, elderly focused and general adult formulations from Sanofi and a paediatric nasal vaccine from AstraZeneca, is a fairly standard structure for a well developed regional flu immunisation programme and is broadly consistent with how other large Spanish autonomous communities structure comparable annual flu vaccine procurement.

Economic Significance

At a combined value of just over €21.3 million for the base 2026-2027 campaign, rising to a maximum framework ceiling of €47.1 million if extended into the 2027-2028 season, this is one of Andalusia's largest annual recurring vaccine procurement categories. Regional officials have described the coming campaign as record setting in scale, with an initial budget calibrated for approximately 1.955 million doses and contractual flexibility to expand purchasing by up to a further 20% depending on vaccination uptake and epidemiological developments through the season, underscoring both the scale of the region's public health commitment to flu prevention and the built in supply flexibility this framework structure is designed to provide.

For the three winning manufacturers, the award represents continued, substantial revenue from one of Spain's largest regional health systems, split according to each company's specific position within Andalusia's broader flu vaccination strategy.

Future Procurement Opportunities

With an option to extend supply into the 2027-2028 campaign already built into this framework, the next genuinely open competition for Andalusia's flu vaccine supply is not likely to reach the market again until at least the 2028-2029 season, assuming the extension option is exercised. In the interim, suppliers should watch for potential additional call offs within the existing framework's 20% supply expansion flexibility, should vaccination uptake or epidemiological conditions during the 2026-2027 campaign warrant it.

Opportunities for Suppliers

Manufacturers with flu vaccine formulations not currently represented in this framework, including adjuvanted formulations for specific immunocompromised populations or newer formulation technologies, should watch for the framework's next open competition, whenever the extension option lapses or is not exercised. Given Andalusia's demonstrated pattern of splitting its flu vaccine procurement across multiple manufacturers by population segment, a supplier with a genuinely differentiated product targeting an underserved population group has a credible route to winning a future lot, rather than needing to displace an incumbent across the entire framework.

What Businesses Should Watch

Three developments are worth tracking. First, whether Andalusia exercises its 20% supply expansion option during the 2026-2027 campaign and how that additional demand is allocated among the three winning manufacturers. Second, whether the option to extend the framework into the 2027-2028 campaign is exercised, which would delay the next open competition by a further year. Third, whether the apparent discrepancy between the notice's aggregate contract value and the sum of its three individual tender values is clarified in any subsequent corrigendum or related notice, since that detail matters for anyone tracking the precise scale of this procurement category.

SpainTenders.com Procurement Intelligence

This framework is a clean illustration of how mature seasonal vaccination programmes structure procurement once a single product can no longer serve an entire target population. Rather than treating "flu vaccine" as one interchangeable commodity andalusia's framework explicitly segments its population by age, health status and care setting, then allocates supply lots to whichever manufacturers' specific formulations best serve each segment, a considerably more clinically sophisticated procurement structure than a simple lowest price, single supplier award would allow.

The apparent gap between the notice's headline aggregate value and the sum of its three individual winning tenders is worth treating as a genuine data quality flag rather than dismissing it. Procurement notices of this complexity, spanning multiple lots and multiple winners reported across grouped result sections, carry real risk of aggregation errors in how totals are calculated and published, a reminder that readers relying on headline summary figures in TED notices should cross check against the underlying lot level detail wherever precision matters, particularly for notices this structurally complex.

Looking ahead, the built in 20% supply flexibility clause is itself a notable design feature worth watching more broadly: as flu seasons become less predictable and vaccination campaigns are increasingly run alongside COVID 19 and RSV immunisation efforts, expect more regional health authorities to build similar volume flexibility provisions directly into their base vaccine procurement contracts, rather than treating supply expansion as a separate, later negotiation.

Supplier Takeaways

• Mature seasonal vaccination programmes increasingly split procurement across multiple manufacturers by population segment rather than awarding a single supplier, a genuinely differentiated formulation targeting an underserved group has a real route to winning a lot.
• Framework agreements with reopening of competition, as used here, remain the standard structure for flu vaccines specifically, distinct from the single supplier, no reopening structure common for patent protected vaccines with no comparable competing product.
• Built in volume flexibility clauses (here, up to 20% additional supply) are becoming a standard feature of seasonal vaccine contracts, suppliers should price and plan capacity with this flexibility in mind.
• All bidders across this specific competition were large, Spain registered pharmaceutical companies; no SME or non Spanish EEA participation was recorded.
• Watch for the framework's extension option (into the 2027-2028 campaign) and its impact on when the next open competition reaches the market.

Key Takeaways

• The Servicio Andaluz de Salud awarded its 2026-2027 flu vaccine framework across three manufacturers: Sanofi Aventis (Lots 1 & 3, €14.56 million), Seqirus Spain (Lots 2 & 5, €21.3 million) and Astrazeneca Farmacéutica Spain (Lot 4, €2.99 million).
• The framework carries a maximum ceiling of €47.1 million if extended into the 2027-2028 campaign, with a base 12 month term and a 12 month extension option.
• All six tenders received across the three lot groups came from large, Spain registered pharmaceutical companies; none from SMEs or non Spanish bidders.
• Andalusia is targeting more than two million vaccinated residents this campaign, with an initial budget for roughly 1.955 million doses and flexibility to expand supply by up to 20%.

Conclusion

A flu shot might look the same to most patients rolling up a sleeve at their local health centre, but behind that single act sits a genuinely complex, multi manufacturer supply chain built to match the right formulation to the right person. Andalusia's three way vaccine split, one supplier for the very young, one for the frail elderly, one for the broader population in between, is what a well designed public vaccination programme looks like when it takes population diversity seriously rather than treating every patient as interchangeable.

Source: EU Official Journal, Contract Award Notice 504488-2026, OJ S 138/2026, published 21/07/2026. Contracting authority: Servicio Andaluz de Salud, Servicios Centrales.