Bird flu, bioterrorism - and other news from the vaccines sector

Technological advances in immunisation - along with increased government spending on bio-defence programmes - are creating new opportunities for vaccine manufacturers.

There are few better examples of where technological innovation has improved prospects across therapeutic areas, to the potentially enormous benefit of mass populations, than in vaccinations. It looks to us as if the many decades in a wilderness characterised by ebbing demand, pressurised prices and microscopic margins are being consigned to the past.

Driven by ongoing concerns regarding the possibility of an influenza pandemic (which has not gone away with the media headlines), the continuing threat of a bio-terrorist attack and increased governmental spending, around the world, on immunisation for an increasing number of diseases, resources and funding continue to be poured into infrastructure and development. The consequence has been that technological change has identified new, more specific, entry points in the ever evolving battle against disease. Vaccine manufacturers now have greater scope than ever to claim an increased share of therapeutics.

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Company % of Total Rev 2005 % of Total Rev 5-Yrs
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)6 15
Astra / Medimmune (MEDI) 225
Merck (MRK)620
Novartis (NVS)220
Sanofi (SAN)912
Wyeth (WYE)812

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