Vaccine market expected to double by 2013

While many industries experienced flagging business last year, vaccine manufacturers had a “a stellar year” in 2008, according to a new report by Kalorama Information, a medical market research firm.

One industry not hurting in today’s economy:  biomedical.

Global vaccine sales grew 21.5 percent in 2008 to reach $19.2 billion. The growth was fueled by direct-to-consumer marketing, increased promotion of the benefits of immunization, and new FDA approvals for new vaccines for meningitis, swine flu, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis, and combination vaccines, according to a report by Kalorama Information, a medical market research firm.

Kalorama forecasts that the market will more than double by 2013 due to new products in development and growing use of vaccines around the world.

"New products and better-than-expected profits, as well as merger activity, have transformed the vaccine marketplace," said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, in a written statement. "Continued sales of influenza and cervical cancer vaccines have provided a foundation for growth in the adult market. Meanwhile, the pediatric market was fueled by several major products including Wyeth's pneumococcal vaccines Prevnar and Merck's new rotavirus vaccine TotaTeq."

The FDA approved several new vaccines in 2008. Among them was Sanofi Pasteur's Penacel, a drug aimed at preventing pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio and Haemophilus influenzae type B; and GlaxoSmithKline's Kimrix, a vaccine to prevent pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus and polio.