Solid Future for Needle-Free Vaccine Delivery

Vaccines represent one of the fastest growing sectors of the pharmaceutical industry. Amidst a frenzy of activity, more new vaccines are being approved each year and are in development than ever before. As the vaccine field continues to enjoy a renaissance, with growing recognition of the value of vaccines and with increasing prices and lowering commercial costs, a number of important challenges remain. For instance, despite great technological advances in recent years, why are vaccines still delivered in pretty much the same way – with a needle and syringe – as they have been for over 200 years?

According to a recent article in The Economist, vaccines used to be seen as low-technology, commodity products that fetched low margins in rich countries and none at all in poor countries (1). The vaccine industry landscape is changing, too. Two thirds of licensed vaccine manufacturers in the US in the 1980s either no longer exist or abandoned the business altogether, and most of the major players today weren’t in the game 20 years ago.

The vaccine industry has been growing at double-digit rates and, according to Wood Mackenzie, sales are expected to increase from $10.9 billion in 2005 to $18.2 billion by the end of the decade. Progress on the technological front, increased funding and higher profits are spurring a boom in vaccine discovery and development. Three new vaccines arrived on the market in 2006, the most ever in a single year. These included vaccines for the human papilloma virus, for rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhoea and kills 600,000 children each year, and another that prevents shingles in the elderly (2).

Vaccines represent a major opportunity for the global pharma industry, yet at the moment the vaccine market is small – less than two per cent of the total market – and is dominated by five major players: Sanofi Pasteur, GSK, Merck & Co, Wyeth and Novartis. Pfizer, who exited the field in the 1970s, recently re-entered with the acquisition of UK-based PowderMed for its needle-free technology for delivering DNA vaccines. Increased recognition of the value of vaccines, a changing global demography (growing and ageing world population), a resurgence of old diseases, an emergence of new diseases, politics, a desire to prepare for emergencies such as flu and SARS pandemics and new areas, such as cancer vaccines, are all contributing to the current growth of the vaccine industry.