AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
Beijing. October 22. INTERFAX-CHINA - Major domestic and multinational flu vaccine manufacturers with interests in the Chinese market came together on October 19th to knock out an agreement on the founding of an industry association to tap deeper into China's massive market potential.
Big names in China such as Sanofi Pasteur, GSK, Novartis, Solvay and Berna, alongside top domestic flu vaccine manufacturers, sat down to the round-table symposium at the 11th Health Care Industry Forum. Alan Zhou, the manager of government affairs with Sanofi Pasteur, the world's top vaccine maker, called for the creation of an industry association which would act as a conduit for increased industry-government-media communication on disease prevention and to establish a set of industry rules and standards in order to avoid chaotic competition.
Market realities: huge potential but underutilized
The potential for China's flu vaccine market is huge. The country has an official population of 1.3 billion and GDP is growing rapidly, indicating increasing per capita disposable income.
The Chinese government recommends that all children between the ages of 6 to 59 months and all senior citizens over 60 years old should be vaccinated against the flu, as they are the major high risk groups. The number of people in these groups is put at around 250 million.
"If the flu immunization rate among this group is just 20 percent, the flu vaccine market in China is still 50 million dosages," Chen Dagao, general manager of Jiangsu Yanshen Biological Technology Stock Co. Ltd. said.
Currently, though, only around two percent of China's total population is being vaccinated against the flu virus, far from the WHO recommended vaccination rate.
Despite such small consumption in the face of such enormous potential, the market hasn't seen a particularly high growth rate in the past years, fluctuating unstably instead.
"In 2002, sales of flu vaccine came to just 4 million doses, however, in 2003, with the SARS outbreaks in the background, sales of flu vaccine jumped to 20 million dosages, " Chen Dagao said.
"In 2004, the consumption of flu vaccines dropped back down to 15 million dosages but in 2005, sales climbed again to 22 million dosages," Chen said, noting the concurrent outbreaks of bird flu and the jump in sales of flu vaccine over the year.
By 2006, sales of flu vaccines in China were again down, to between 17 million and 18 million dosages.
Problems restricting growth
"The Chinese flu vaccine market swings with the rise and fall of epidemics, which makes it hard for flu vaccine makers to accurately assess the size of the market, even in the near future," Chen said.
Bad market demand forecasts can lead to either the loss of market share to competitors or oversupply problems, which may lead to financial losses.
"If 30 percent of the vaccines remain unsold, the vaccine makers will suffer financially," Ding Xiaohang, president and CEO of Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said.
On top of that, vaccine makers also face hindrances to market growth as a result of low awareness of influenza problems among the general public and a lack of government initiatives to support flu immunization efforts.
"In the Asia Pacific region, there is a perception that influenza is not a serious disease," Dr. Lance Jennings, a representative from APACI, or Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee on Influenza said, "However, statistics may prove that [this] is a wrong perception."
Those statistics show that there are around 3 million to 5 million influenza cases worldwide every year and that the disease is claiming 250,000 to 500,000 deaths per annum.
Flu vaccines are labeled 'Class II vaccines' in China, which means the cost of immunization is born by the individual, rather than being a responsibility of the government.
Without adequate support from social or medical insurance systems, the growth of the market in the near future looks set to continue to be greatly stunted.
Promising examples, but will an alliance help?
In recent years, there have been some promising indicators of growing government awareness of the importance of flu prevention.
In 2002, the Labor and Social Security Bureau of Xi'an City in northwestern China's Shaanxi province launched a free flu immunization program for civil servants on a trial basis. Two years later, the government expanded the free flu immunization program to every city resident covered by basic medical insurance.
Earlier this month, China's capital city Beijing announced it was going to spend around RMB 100 million ($13.32 million) on providing free flu vaccinations for senior citizens and subsidizing vaccinations for schoolchildren.
Industry insiders believe that setting up an industry association which can facilitate increased communication between business and government or media will help to raise awareness of flu prevention and that it will also play an active role in getting initiatives, such as those Xi'an and Beijing, off the ground in other cities.
However, setting up an association alone will achieve nothing without efforts to ensure its credibility, without which, such an association may, in fact, make it harder for the healthy development of the flu vaccine industry.
"The industry association itself should be credible and every member should be self-disciplined," Ni Xiangyang, head of vaccine division of Novartis China said.
"Members of the association should bear in mind that we are working together to promote public health rather than simply our own interests," Xu Ding, director of business development in Greater China with Solvay (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., said. "If each member of the association works solely towards its own interest, conflicts will be inevitable. There would be no point in forming the association."
http://www.interfax.cn/displayarticle.asp?aid=28841&slug=PHARMACEUTICAL-VACCINE
Big names in China such as Sanofi Pasteur, GSK, Novartis, Solvay and Berna, alongside top domestic flu vaccine manufacturers, sat down to the round-table symposium at the 11th Health Care Industry Forum. Alan Zhou, the manager of government affairs with Sanofi Pasteur, the world's top vaccine maker, called for the creation of an industry association which would act as a conduit for increased industry-government-media communication on disease prevention and to establish a set of industry rules and standards in order to avoid chaotic competition.
Market realities: huge potential but underutilized
The potential for China's flu vaccine market is huge. The country has an official population of 1.3 billion and GDP is growing rapidly, indicating increasing per capita disposable income.
The Chinese government recommends that all children between the ages of 6 to 59 months and all senior citizens over 60 years old should be vaccinated against the flu, as they are the major high risk groups. The number of people in these groups is put at around 250 million.
"If the flu immunization rate among this group is just 20 percent, the flu vaccine market in China is still 50 million dosages," Chen Dagao, general manager of Jiangsu Yanshen Biological Technology Stock Co. Ltd. said.
Currently, though, only around two percent of China's total population is being vaccinated against the flu virus, far from the WHO recommended vaccination rate.
Despite such small consumption in the face of such enormous potential, the market hasn't seen a particularly high growth rate in the past years, fluctuating unstably instead.
"In 2002, sales of flu vaccine came to just 4 million doses, however, in 2003, with the SARS outbreaks in the background, sales of flu vaccine jumped to 20 million dosages, " Chen Dagao said.
"In 2004, the consumption of flu vaccines dropped back down to 15 million dosages but in 2005, sales climbed again to 22 million dosages," Chen said, noting the concurrent outbreaks of bird flu and the jump in sales of flu vaccine over the year.
By 2006, sales of flu vaccines in China were again down, to between 17 million and 18 million dosages.
Problems restricting growth
"The Chinese flu vaccine market swings with the rise and fall of epidemics, which makes it hard for flu vaccine makers to accurately assess the size of the market, even in the near future," Chen said.
Bad market demand forecasts can lead to either the loss of market share to competitors or oversupply problems, which may lead to financial losses.
"If 30 percent of the vaccines remain unsold, the vaccine makers will suffer financially," Ding Xiaohang, president and CEO of Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said.
On top of that, vaccine makers also face hindrances to market growth as a result of low awareness of influenza problems among the general public and a lack of government initiatives to support flu immunization efforts.
"In the Asia Pacific region, there is a perception that influenza is not a serious disease," Dr. Lance Jennings, a representative from APACI, or Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee on Influenza said, "However, statistics may prove that [this] is a wrong perception."
Those statistics show that there are around 3 million to 5 million influenza cases worldwide every year and that the disease is claiming 250,000 to 500,000 deaths per annum.
Flu vaccines are labeled 'Class II vaccines' in China, which means the cost of immunization is born by the individual, rather than being a responsibility of the government.
Without adequate support from social or medical insurance systems, the growth of the market in the near future looks set to continue to be greatly stunted.
Promising examples, but will an alliance help?
In recent years, there have been some promising indicators of growing government awareness of the importance of flu prevention.
In 2002, the Labor and Social Security Bureau of Xi'an City in northwestern China's Shaanxi province launched a free flu immunization program for civil servants on a trial basis. Two years later, the government expanded the free flu immunization program to every city resident covered by basic medical insurance.
Earlier this month, China's capital city Beijing announced it was going to spend around RMB 100 million ($13.32 million) on providing free flu vaccinations for senior citizens and subsidizing vaccinations for schoolchildren.
Industry insiders believe that setting up an industry association which can facilitate increased communication between business and government or media will help to raise awareness of flu prevention and that it will also play an active role in getting initiatives, such as those Xi'an and Beijing, off the ground in other cities.
However, setting up an association alone will achieve nothing without efforts to ensure its credibility, without which, such an association may, in fact, make it harder for the healthy development of the flu vaccine industry.
"The industry association itself should be credible and every member should be self-disciplined," Ni Xiangyang, head of vaccine division of Novartis China said.
"Members of the association should bear in mind that we are working together to promote public health rather than simply our own interests," Xu Ding, director of business development in Greater China with Solvay (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., said. "If each member of the association works solely towards its own interest, conflicts will be inevitable. There would be no point in forming the association."
http://www.interfax.cn/displayarticle.asp?aid=28841&slug=PHARMACEUTICAL-VACCINE