Merck & Co, which operates in India as MSD Pharmaceuticals, is gearing up to launch more vaccines in the country. Talking to FE?s BV Mahalakshmi, MSD president and managing director KG Ananthakrishnan says the company is working out on responsible pricing strategy and finding ways to increase immunisation awareness. It is also open to talks with the government bodies for inclusion of vaccines in public health programmes. The pharma major hopes to launch about four to five brands every year for the next five years.
The Wellcome Trust and Merck & Co announced the creation of the MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories to focus on developing affordable vaccines. How will the research lab help in developing vaccines for the emerging markets?
Developing new vaccines in areas of unmet need, the Hilleman Laboratories will work on optimising existing vaccines, a powerful way of increasing the impact of vaccination in resource-limited settings. By working in partnership, the Wellcome Trust and Merck seek to achieve what neither can do alone. There is a critical need to develop new ways for scientific innovation to be translated effectively into new vaccines that can save lives and protect the health of people living in low-income countries which is possible through productive partnerships. Merck and the Wellcome Trust have invested $130 million equally in the R&D joint venture over the next seven years and will support a staff of approximately 60 researchers and developers. We are looking for a facility and are talking to few state governments for the R&D centre to facilitate engagement and partnership with a broad range of experts in vaccine research, policy and manufacturing to develop and mature its R&D pipeline.
Has the work at the R&D lab been initiated and what is the status of the facility?
The recruitment for the lab has commenced and we are yet to zero in on the facility as we have lot of options. The first project would be a feasibility study into how new technologies might be used to develop a rotavirus vaccine designed specifically with developing countries. Formulations based on dissolving thin strips or granules will be examined for their potential to improve product stability, ease of use, transportation and affordability. Many first-generation vaccines have not been developed with the specific needs of countries with poor infrastructure for vaccine delivery in mind. One big challenge is how to tackle logistics challenges in the developing world which means distributing life-saving vaccines without the requirement for large bulk shipments, expensive warehousing and costly, difficult-to-maintain refrigerated shipping paths from the manufacturing plant to the patient.
After the global merger of Merck and Co and Schering-Plough in 2009 and then making a re-entry through businesses integration of Fulford and Organon, how do you view the Indian vaccine market?
We had earlier said we want to become one among the top five players by 2015. This is being made possible through include manufacturing and research partnership both with private players and government bodies. We are open to discussions with the government agencies for inclusion of some critical vaccines in the National Immunisation Programme. We want to launch four to five brands every year for the next five years which would become the drivers for growth. We have about 13 manufacturing relationships and about 60% of our products are locally manufactured. We are looking out for research partnerships besides the marketing relationship. As per IMS data, the overall vaccine market in India is R815 crore and we are among the top 10 with about 3.7% marketshare. We are exploring alliances with local companies to expand our reach.
On the way to your growth, do you perceive any challenges and how do you see the awareness levels for the unique three vaccines you have launched in the country?
We are working with the stakeholders to spread the awareness on some of the critical vaccines such as Rotateq which is a pentavalent vaccine for fatal infant diarrhoea. We have a diversified product portfolio of over 75 brands in various therapeutic areas of which 13 are leading products. In the process, we are working on India-relevant pricing, which is also relevant to developing counties.
