Vaccines get a boost: Global market increases profitability of making vaccine

Although long recognized as a public health boon, vaccines' high development costs and low profit margins were not attractive to manufacturers. That has changed.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Feb. 4, 2008.

Vaccines are hot. "The global vaccine market is set to double by the year 2016, fueled by unprecedented product innovations and global recognition of the benefits of immunization," said Michael D. Decker, MD, MPH, vice president for scientific and medical affairs at vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur, USA.

"This is one of the very best times to be involved in immunization because of all the excitement," noted Lance Rodewald, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Immunization Services Division.

But just a few years ago, the stalwart tetanus vaccine was in short supply, seasonal influenza vaccine was hard to come by, and manufacturers were leaving the field, citing low profits and high production costs.

Now, new vaccines are hitting the market. Shingles, human papillomavirus and rotavirus vaccines were introduced in 2006. In 2005 two Tdap vaccines were approved to help fight pertussis in teens and young adults. Last month, data were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that a meningococcal vaccine protects infants from four types of the meningitis bacteria, and manufacturer Novartis is expected to seek approval to take it to market.

Flu vaccine is also plentiful this year, and last year's National Influenza Vaccine Summit, an annual event sponsored by the AMA and the CDC, attracted representatives from more than 100 groups interested in ensuring this year's smooth flu season.

Not that it's all a rosy picture. Clinical trials for Merck's promising HIV vaccine were halted last fall when the vaccine was found to be ineffective. Also, a current shortage of haemophilus influenzae vaccine type B, or Hib, resulted when Merck recalled the product after production problems.