Glaxo to roll out seven vaccines from parent kitty

Multinational drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceuticals will launch at least seven vaccines in India from its parent's portfolio over the next one to two years. The global pharma major's decision comes at a time when India is gearing up to adopt a product patent regime.

The decision will make GSK Pharmaceuticals by far the largest vaccine company in the country. With a market share of around 26 per cent, it is second to Aventis Pharma, which commands around 28.4 per cent of the vaccine market in India.

The slew of blockbuster vaccines that the drug maker is planning to launch in the domestic market includes rotavirus vaccine, influenza vaccine, HPV vaccine, DTPa boosting vaccine, cervical cancer vaccines, meningitis vaccine (quadrivalent), DTPa cellular vaccine, combos c polio and Hib vaccine.

S Kalyansundaram, managing director, said, "We are launching a vaccine in three-four days."

Currently, GSK Pharmaceuticals' Rs 100 crore vaccine business in India markets around 9-10 vaccines in the domestic market. The business accounts for around 8 per cent of its total turnover of around Rs 1,200 crore.

All GSK group companies source vaccines out of the parent company's Belgium vaccine facility. The parent company's portfolio consists of around 20 vaccines.

According to a Mumbai-based analyst tracking the pharmaceutical sector, it's a positive development from the long term perspective. The new launches have to be aggressively promoted in the initial years.

Breakthrough in malaria vaccine: GSK Pharmaceutical today announced a breakthrough in malaria vaccine. The drug-maker's malaria vaccine candidate (RTS, S/AS02A), in a proof of concept study (phase II), saved a significant percentage of children against uncomplicated malaria, infection and severe forms of the disease for at least six months.

It is understood to be the largest malaria vaccine efficacy trial ever conducted in Africa. The phase II b clinical trial also reconfirmed the vaccine's safety in one-to-four year old children, a release said.

S Kalyansundaram, managing director of GSK Pharmaceuticals, said in a media conference in Mumbai, "We are looking forward to phase III clinical trials of the malaria vaccine candidate in India." The vaccine has been on the discovery mode for around 20 years.