Although two-thirds of vaccine research and development (R&D) globally is carried out by European firms, manufacturers in China, India and Brazil are becoming increasingly muscular and ‘moving from dependency to self-sufficiency’, experts at a two-day conference in Brussels on vaccine research heard in late March. Dr Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director, Serum Institute of India, said there is a declining interest by major international pharma companies in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) funded by the World Bank, leaving a gap that developing country manufacturers are striving to fill.
The audience at the conference organised by the European Commission (EC), ‘New Horizons for Vaccine Research and Innovation’ heard that BRICS countries in particular, along with innovative emerging market countries such as South Africa, have pharma players looking to meet this demand from healthcare systems. And indeed, the global vaccine market is no longer an EU, USA, Japan triad. The market size has increased from US$5bn (£3bn) in 2000 to $24bn (£14.5bn) last year, according to the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturing Network (DCVMN). In 2012, emerging market manufacturers catered for 50% of procurement by value of UNICEF-purchased vaccines.
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