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'Vaccine business: A game of snakes-and-ladders'

02 April 2014 | Analysis | By BioSpectrum Bureau

Dr Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech and Dr Christian Loucq, Director General International Vaccine Institute

Dr Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech and Dr Christian Loucq, Director General International Vaccine Institute

India: The annual revenue of the global vaccine industry is expected to be $35 billion for 2014.

With Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) 11.5%, industry experts believe that the global vaccine is expected to be valued at USD 52 billion by 2016.

Though the vaccine industry looks promising, there seems to be inevitable challenges and road-blocks faced by many companies, including: access to new technologies; regulatory challenges; vaccine clinical trials; obtaining patents and IP; limitations to development; production scaling; and manufacturing productivity.

Dr Krishna Ella, founder, Bharat Biotech, India, in his opening remarks said, "Everyone today is talking about innovation and costs. Over 15% of the world's population is accumulated in the developed world, and about 80% in the developing world. We spend less than 1% of our GDP on healthcare. Though the healthcare budget has come close to $5.5 billion, we spend only $100 million on vaccines."
The keynote was delivered by Dr Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer, Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom, who presented on the topic, 'Facilitating Innovation in Vaccine Development through the Interplay of the Public and Private Sectors.'

He said, "So far, Wellcome Trust has supported 270 projects." He emphasized that there is a clear great need for partnerships in the vaccine R&D.

 

"It is detrimental to have unrealistic business cases and win-lose partnership arguments," opined Dr Bianco.

"The vaccine business is less a game of monopoly, and more a game of snakes-and-ladders', and nobody wants that," further added Dr Bianco.

Dr Ella concluded, "So it is not the lack of money... Something seems to be wrong somewhere.. We have been manufacturing vaccines since 1999, and it costs less than the price of a water bottle on your tables. But things are changing now... Public-private and private-private partnerships are helping us to tackle neglected diseases. Big companies should work with emerging world which can reach the neglected markets."

The conference witnessed exhibition stalls erected by PALL Life Sciences, Aptar Stelmi, ATMI Life Sciences, BIA Separations, West Pharma, HiMedia, and Healthgen Biotechnology.

 

 

 

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