Vaccines: A Powerful Panacea to Impound Epidemic

The realm of pandemic has its traces right from 430 B.C. in Athens that killed almost two-third population during the Peloponnesian War to The Plague of Justinian that held responsible for the highest number of lives lost in epidemic in 542 AD. Nevertheless, this prodigy has continued till date with its recent encounter to kill 1200 cases in Madagascar through the measles epidemic. This vogue has witnessed it’s dwindle with the build out of appropriate vaccines and re-modelling of the existing vaccine therapies. These immunity shots have proven times and again to revolutionize human’s ability towards disease prevention contributing to communal health advancement.

The economic advantages coupled with the healthcare benefits of the immunization are very well researched and proven. The wonders of life-saving vaccines have been possible through scientific ingenuity and ongoing innovations. This has helped vaccines to emerge as a potential component in the global pharmaceutical industry with a striking growth rate over the past years.

Evolution of vaccines:

The exercise of immunization dates back to over hundreds of years. In the west, Edward Jenner is considered as the pioneer of vaccination after his first successful inoculation of vaccinia virus (cowpox) to a 13 year-old-boy that demonstrated immunity towards smallpox in 1796. Eventually, experiments by Louis Pasteur spearheaded the rise of live attenuated Cholera vaccine as well as an inactivated form of anthrax vaccine in 1897 and 1904, respectively. The health gains from immunization soon continued to become one of the robust method for researchers around the globe as well as the pharmaceutical industry to decrease litigation and increase profitability through vaccine production. On the contrary, the past two decades interestingly have explored the implementation of molecular genetics as well as their insights to ameliorate the vaccinology, immunology, and microbiology in spite of the regulatory obligations for reducing the vaccine prices and motivating immunization programs with nadir profit margins. However, for all the intents and purposes, vaccinations against some of the life-threatening diseases have proven to be one of the greatest public health achievements that has prevented millions of premature deaths.

Dynamics in Vaccine Market:

In the current era, there are increasing concerns of spread of infectious diseases with the changing environment. These emerging infectious diseases are a burden on public health but have also an impact on global economies. The new diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, dengue have attracted a huge concern for the government of the respective countries. There is also resurgence of diseases which seemed to be under control such as malaria, cholera and many more. According to the Centers for Disease control and Prevention in 2015, 16.8 million people in the US visited hospitals due to infectious and parasitic diseases. In Africa, chronic viral hepatitis affects around 70 million Africans (60 million with Hepatitis B and 10 million with Hepatitis C). The disease impacts the most important part of the African population i.e. youths and earning African population which are causing tremendous rise in financial debts incurred for the treatment of advanced liver diseases and emotional distress. Furthermore, the Asia Pacific region suffers from a number of global disease like influenza, dengue, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, are endemic to the entire region, and at the same time there are the newly emerging Hendra and Nipah viruses. Thus the growing global prevalence of infectious diseases are expected to encourage the leading market players for the development of new and effective drugs and vaccines.

In addition, nations all around the world are witnessing broad demographic and economic changes resulting towards growing focus on immunization programs. According to the estimates from UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, and the UN Population Division, in the last decade, more than 5 million deaths were reduced with the help of vaccinations delivered around the world. Immunization is considered to be one of the most cost-effective ways to tackle public health challenges. In the past decade, the scope of immunization has expanded significantly as new vaccines and delivery technologies have been introduced into routine immunization programs worldwide. At the same time it has witnessed a proliferation of factors at the global stage that promote immunization and it has enabled the vaccines to all parts of the world. For instance, The Pulse Polio Initiative in India was started in 1995 with an objective to eradicate polio completely with administration of Oral Polio Vaccine to the children in the age group of 0-5 years. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, around 172 million children are immunized each year with polio drops vaccine on National Immunization Day (NID) during National and Sub-national immunization rounds (in high risk areas). The increasing focus on immunization programs is likely to foster the growth of market in the coming years.

Challenges in Vaccines Market:

Vaccines are the basis to fight against communicable diseases. This has been proven by the success of smallpox eradication, the drastic reduction in polio cases during the past 20 years, the progress toward tetanus elimination, and the reduction of measles mortality. Despite these achievements, infectious diseases are still responsible for nearly 30% of all deaths worldwide; more than 15 million people die every year, mostly in low-income and middle-income countries. Vaccines used today are the product of discovery and development during past decades. The vaccine development process ensures the ethics, safety, and quality of the research, manufacturing, and clinical development during the research and product development process.

It often takes more than 10 years to deliver a final, licensed vaccine, and requires not only excellence during research and product development but also managerial and funding commitment throughout the endeavor. Costs associated with research, development and clinical studies of vaccines in particular are very high, and the manufacturer has to recover its investment which could have tied up capital for a decade or more. There is also the risk of failure predominantly in the early stages of development. Hence vaccine research and vaccine development is an extensive, complex, and loaded with binary outcome risks. Thus complex manufacturing processes, high technological and research and development barriers, and the high costs associated with vaccine production can hamper the market growth.

Geographic analysis of vaccines market:

The global vaccines market can be broadly categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South & Central America. The overall value of global vaccines market is predicted to reach US$ 64,538.4 Mn in 2027 from US$ 36,998.8 in 2018, with a CAGR of 6.5% from 2019-2027. North America entails largest market for Vaccines with the US holding largest market share followed by Canada. The growth in North America is characterized by investments made by the key players for various research and development activities as well as launch of new products in the US. In addition, extensive research in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies further expected stimulate the growth of vaccines market in North America. On the contrary, shaping up as a powerhouse of vaccine production through increasing funds, highly skilled and educated workforce as well as rising interest of government in to biotechnology sector, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as one of the fastest growing region in the global vaccines market.

Conclusion:

There are endless predictions about the revolution and health benefits that can be brought through the vaccination in healthcare. Driving factors such as, growing focus on immunization programs, increasing support for vaccine development, rising prevalence of infectious diseases. However, the complexity and cost of vaccine manufacturing and soaring costs of vaccines are likely to pose a negative impact on the market growth. On the other hand, robust pipeline of vaccines is likely to have a positive impact on the growth of the global vaccines market in the coming years.