By Rupali Mukherjee
MUMBAI: Vaccines are back in favour. After being junked by pharma biggies some years back, now almost every drug major is investing in vaccines by acquiring or building on fresh capacities (organic or inorganic route). The evidence lies in pharma biggie Pfizer acquiring Wyeth and domestic major Shantha Biotech being snapped up by Sanofi a couple of years ago.
Presumably, vaccines which were earlier thought as a low-margin, low-growth industry, have emerged as one of the most lucrative segments of the industry, and domestic companies like Serum, Cadila and Wockhardt are trying to corner a piece of the action.
The Rs 1,500-crore domestic vaccine market-which has recorded a growth of 15% in the last fiscal-will continue to grow 15-20% over the years. Some industry players feel the sector can even outpace the pharma sector soon. Experts feel that the demand for vaccines is on the upswing because of the emphasis by the government to vaccinate children under the immunization programme. Combination vaccines like DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus), Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) and new generation vaccines like human papilloma are driving growth.
Vaccines get a booster shot – The Times of India: Read more….
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