India’s vaccine industry limps to recover post-setback

Pushpa Vijayaraghavan is confident that Indian companies will continue to be the most dominant contributor in the global public health landscape. Indian vaccine manufacturers contribute to 76 percent of UNICEF tender volumes and the top three Indian vaccine manufacturers account for 72 percent of UNICEF’s procurement of pentavalent vaccine.​ ​ The only non-Indian low-and-middle-income countries manufacturer on the UNICEF procurement list is Korea’s LG Lifesciences, says Vijayaraghavan.​ “While other Korean companies such as SK Biopharmaceuticals are developing a pipeline of vaccines such as PCV, they are not yet in commercial supply. China has negligible capacity of WHO pre-qualified vaccine manufacturing. Hence, there is no near-term threat perceived to Indian contribution to WHO pre-qualified vaccines for public health.”​ ​ The dip in the share of vaccines among India’s pharma exports may have to do with price erosion on current portfolio products, said Vijayaraghavan, but new products are coming online that could help address this issue.​

Source: Bioworld