Vaccines are hot

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: The race to offer H1N1 flu vaccination is picking up pace. While global H1N1 vaccine manufacturers like Sanofi Pasteur, Novartis and MedImmune have begun shipping their products, Indian vaccine majors Serum Institute of India, Panacea Biotech and Bharat Biotech are likely to start human clinical trials by the year-end and the H1N1 vaccine will hit the market by March-April next year. Armed with the seed virus, scientists at domestic vaccine majors like Serum Institute of India, Panacea Biotech and Bharat Biotech are working at a frenetic pace to produce a single dose of vaccine, which induces a strong immune response in healthy adults and children.

Indian research efforts are in line with the sentiment echoed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has restated its confidence in the H1N1 flu vaccine, calling it the most important tool against the influenza pandemic. Mass vaccination campaigns against influenza pandemic are going on in China and Australia and will be starting soon in the United States and parts of Europe. Though mild adverse side effects such as muscle cramps or headache have been reported in some cases, WHO strongly recommends that everyone who has access to the vaccine should be immunised.

WHO declared the H1N1 influenza pandemic in June and its laboratories have provided seed virus to vaccine makers worldwide to develop vaccines. GlaxoSmithKline won government orders for its H1N1 vaccine of 440 million doses worth $3.5 billion. Sanofi Pasteur has shipped the first batch of H1N1 flu vaccine from its plant in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, several days earlier than expected. Further shipments will follow, with a total of 75.3 million doses expected through December. Other companies manufacturing the flu vaccine include Novartis, Baxter, AstraZeneca and CSL.

It is evident that the $20-billion global vaccine market, which was earlier thought as a low-margin, low-growth industry, is currently attracting the interest of all major pharmaceutical giants. The market is presently witnessing growth rates much faster than the traditional pharmaceutical market; and with many new blockbuster potential vaccines likely to hit the market in future, the growth is only expected to increase. The biggest factor driving the vaccine market is its potential to prevent deaths due to diseases.