Wyeth: Big Pharma continues its shopping spree

The current economic environment has paved the way for leading pharmaceutical firms to sweep in and buy up smaller players, highlighted by Wyeth's potential acquisition of Crucell and Merck & Co's strategy to aggressively look for targets in 2009. An increasing number of pharmaceutical majors are likely to use this approach to strengthen their biologic portfolios and access novel pipeline drugs.

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Vaccines: sales show global growth

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Vaccines: further consolidation through Sanofi cash bid for Acambis

Sanofi Pasteur's offer, valuing Acambis at GBP276m, will give the French pharmaceutical firm extended access to Acambis's large vaccine pipeline, particularly to a universal influenza vaccine candidate and a Clostridium difficile vaccine. The acquisition represents a further important consolidation step in the growing vaccines market, leaving Austria's Intercell as the next big takeover target.

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Vaccines have re-emerged as growth drivers for the biopharmaceutical industry

Prior to 2000, vaccines were generally regarded as a commodity market with limited revenue opportunities. However, advances in vaccine technology, the launch of new vaccines, increased investment in research, a change of public opinion about vaccination, and more favorable legislation regarding vaccine injury compensation have contributed to their re-emergence as successful growth drivers.

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Vaccine market overview 2010

Five companies account for approximately 80% of total global vaccine sales: Sanofi Pasteur, Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Novartis. The key reason for this oligopoly is the high barrier to entry for smaller players, which usually have limited manufacturing capacity, and may also lack the resources and the distribution networks required for vaccine development.

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Roche: Tamiflu sales hit by fading flu hype

Sales of Tamiflu, Roche's influenza treatment, have plummeted by 68% compared to 2007, reflecting the waning attention paid to pandemic preparation by governments worldwide and the emerging competition from Relenza and pandemic influenza vaccines. Despite insufficient stockpiles in most countries, Datamonitor believes that the seasonal market will continue to gain importance for Tamiflu's sales.

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Pediatric vaccines: unmet needs create opportunities

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Pandemic threat reignites influenza vaccine market

The last few years have seen renewed interest in the vaccines market, overcoming the prevailing view that vaccines are a low-margin business with high barriers to entry. The flu vaccines market has been at the forefront of this trend, partially fuelled by fear of an impending pandemic. This trend is set to continue, although flu vaccine revenues will depend on ambitious coverage targets being met.

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Pandemic flu: gaps in preparedness remain

The current outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) is testing pandemic preparedness strategies across the globe. While widely implemented strategies seem to have prepared the world better than ever before, important gaps regarding the logistics of drug and vaccine distribution remain.

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Novavax: competitors may follow lead in regional strategy

US biotech Novavax has initiated a pivotal two-stage study for its H1N1 influenza vaccine in Mexico. Novavax's strategy of pursuing approval for the vaccine in smaller markets before targeting the US represents an alternative and faster route to market. Given the many benefits of this strategy, Datamonitor believes that it may be adopted by other small vaccine companies in the future.

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