GSK
India exec sees growth fueled by Novartis vaccine assets
GlaxoSmithKline's ($GSK)
emerging-market vaccines sales have seen better days, thanks to a $489 million
bribery probe that recently led to the indictment of the company's former China
head. But according to a local exec, good times are ahead for Glaxo's vaccines
unit in India--and the company's recent pickup of Novartis' non-flu vaccine
assets will help it get there.
According to Hasit
Joshipura, managing director of GSK India, Novartis' ($NVS) vaccine products,
like anti-rabies shot Rabipur, will bolster the company's efforts to push
further into India's Rs1,600-crore ($271 million) vaccine market. Pointing to
the country's large birth rate and rising income levels, he tabbed it
"probably the most exciting vaccine market in the world" in an interview
with The Economic Times.
"Typically, as
education and income increase, the obviously one thing Indians will do is spend
on their children," he told the paper.
Of course, Glaxo had to
give up a fair bit to pad its vaccine lineup, trading away its oncology
business to the Swiss pharma giant as part of the multi-billion-dollar
transaction. But as Joshipura pointed out, in India, a jab like Rabipur alone
is worth Rs110 crore ($18.6 million), compared with an estimated Rs50 crore
($8.5 million) for the oncology business.
That doesn't mean India's
vaccine landscape is an easy one for multinationals to navigate. As the ET
notes, price cuts in the country have wiped out their fair share of top-line
growth for drugmakers--Glaxo included--and clinical trial delays have prompted
many countries to move their operations elsewhere.
But Glaxo--a
tiered-pricing pioneer in emerging countries--has built a model specifically to
suit India's needs, Joshipura said. "We moved manufacturing many years ago
to India, then we have pricing which is India-specific. "We got lucky in
the early period where we have products specific for India's disease
profile," said Joshipura.
Glaxo won't necessarily
count on that kind of luck in other developing countries, however; the company
recently announced it would tailor a vaccine portfolio to suit health needs in
Africa as part of a wider access initiative.
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