Kalorama Information: Experimental vaccine distribution in the UK points to growing flu vaccine market

Kalorama Information believes an experimental vaccine distribution in the United Kingdom and other similar developments point to a growing flu vaccine market, as well as a growing market for the production of these vaccines. The healthcare market researcher said that two- to four-year-olds in the UK are for the first time to be offered for free an egg-based nasal vaccine. The intention is to prevent influenza (flu) in hopes of not just protecting children from getting flu, but also of stopping the disease spreading from them to their family, caregivers and the wider population. Kalorama discusses vaccine production technologies in its report, Biopharmaceutical and Vaccine Production Markets.

"Public awareness and attention on vaccines help boost the market," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. "The commitment of a significant world healthcare market will drive the need for more vaccine production, at a time when makers are looking for more efficient ways to produce vaccine."

In the UK, the goal of administering vaccine is to stop flu spreading to pregnant women, young children, those over 65 and those with conditions such as asthma and diabetes, as last winter over 900 people were admitted to intensive care with flu and 98 of them died. Therefore, for those aged two, three and four, free vaccination is now available, given as a nasal spray rather than an injection.

According to Kalorama, three different production technologies are used to produce influenza vaccine: egg-based, cell-based and recombinant. The egg-based manufacturing process used to make both live attenuated (weakened) vaccine (the form of vaccine delivered nasally) and inactivated (killed) vaccine (the "flu shot") has been in existence for more than 70 years. However, the healthcare market research publisher points out in its report that changes are coming to the field. Companies such as Novartis and Synthetic Genomics Vaccines are collaborating to apply synthetic genomics technologies to speed the production of the influenza seed strains – the starter cultures of a virus – required for vaccine manufacturing. This technology could reduce the vaccine production time by up to two months, which is critical in the event of a pandemic.

The Biopharmaceutical and Vaccine Production Markets report, which also notes the current competitive environment, listing selected biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers, selected top-selling biopharmaceuticals, selected Asian biomanufacturing contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), the top 10 biopharma companies based on 2012 biopharma revenues, and the top manufacturers by global biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, can be found at KI: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/redirect.asp?progid=86725&productid=8357580.