Tapping unmet medical needs will fuel growth in the European vaccines market to almost double its current value by 2018, according to a new report.
Frost & Sullivan predict the market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.6 per cent from $6.36bn during 2011 to $12.05bn by 2018, as companies look to conditions with “huge growth potential”, such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
The potential for vaccines to reduce later healthcare spending is also encouraging governments to increase support for vaccination programmes, says the report.
Noted recent successes in vaccination include the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to protect people from cervical cancer.
Vaccine programmes have been rolled out across Europe, although a separate report published last week suggested some countries should step up their efforts to vaccinate girls.
Sanofi has also posted data from a trial investigating what could be the first vaccine for dengue fever. Despite a lower than expected efficacy rate, hopes are still high for what would be a significant breakthrough in treatment of the most widespread tropical disease after malaria.
Real advances could also be seen in malaria vaccination, following the launch of a central ‘reference’ laboratory for measuring the performance of malaria vaccines through a partnership between London’s Imperial College, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to identify vaccine candidates.
Frost & Sullivan say an additional factor in the growth of the European vaccines market will be if manufacturers and governments can suitably anticipate or prepare for events such as pandemic outbreaks, epidemics and bioterrorism.
“Vaccine manufacturers are under the compulsion to maintain excess reserve supply owing to the tender-based vaccine procurement, lest they miss out on huge business opportunities,” noted Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Aiswariya Chidambaram.
Consequently, for companies to succeed in the market, they will have to accurately predict capacity demand and product differentiation to avoid being hit by excess of inadequate capacity, Chidambaram said.
- Read the report on the European vaccines market