Indian vaccine market to climb to $871 mn by 2016

Washington, Sept 28 (PTI) India's vaccine production sector is likely to expand dramatically to an estimated size of USD 871 million by 2016, says a report. In 2011, it was estimated to be USD 350 million. The report said it anticipates a sizeable shift in the industry landscape, as the most promising future growth opportunities for the production and sale of vaccines come from emerging economies such as India and China. Concerns regarding the emergence of bio-terrorism and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), in addition to the search for cancer vaccines, are the drivers for the fast expansion of the India's vaccine production sector, said the new report from pharmaceutical industry experts GBI Research. The second most populous country in the world has emerged as a major vaccine producer in recent years, focusing efforts on geographical regions where vaccines are not funded by the UN or charitable organisations, it said. As a result, exports constituted 65 per cent of the Indian vaccines market last year, GBI Research said. Global vaccines market expanded significantly during 2005-2011, with major pharmaceutical players such as GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer posting notable profits and the US recording the largest share in the world, it noted. In January 2008, the Indian government cancelled the licences of three vaccine-producing units – the Central Research Institute, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccine Laboratory and the Pasteur Institute of India – on account of non-compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). But in April 2011, India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) launched a National Vaccine Policy (NVP), stressing upon the future significance of the vaccine industry, the GBI Research said in a statement. PTI