Business perspectives of a European vaccine manufacturer

摘要

At the dawn of the new millennium, the Western vaccine industry has come of age. Its major players are fully integrated in the research-based international pharmaceutical industry, and operate in all major markets. The Europeanrooted vaccine industry has truly become global, operating in industrialised markets, in the emerging economies as well as in nearly every developing country of the world. The annual output of its vaccines numbers well exceeds two billion doses. The Western vaccine industry provides for sophisticated vaccines upon which novel health policies are based (acellular pertussis, conjugated polysaccharide vaccines against meningitis C and against Streptococcus pneumoniae, combined vaccines of complex formulae, etc.) and for the vast quantities of vaccines upon which the world relies for the drive to eradicate poliomyelitis and for basic vaccination of as many children as possible. In principle, the Western vaccine industry seems poised for robust further growth and development; the global outlook of the vaccine industry and the vaccine market remains attractive. Yet an analysis of the business perspectives of the vaccine industry must take into account a number of facts and tendencies that cannot but bring more nuance to the picture.