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MSD mulls vaccines for lesser known illnesses

MSD Pharmaceuticals, the 100% subsidiary of US-based Merck, is looking at bringing preventive vaccines for illnesses people in India

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KOLKATA: MSD Pharmaceuticals, the 100% subsidiary of US-based Merck, is looking at bringing preventive vaccines for illnesses people in India are generally apathetic to.

These include the vaccine for the Rota virus, which kills about 1,50,000 children in the country every year. The symptom is acute diarrhoea. The vaccine is in the process of being registered with the Drug Controller General of India.

The company is also working on bringing in a vaccine for shingles, or herpes zoster. The virus has its beginning in chickenpox, which afflicts most children.

Once infected, people usually develop a lifelong immunity from further chickenpox attacks. But the virus remains dormant in the body and resurfaces in the form of a painful skin rash with blisters, when afflicted people reach the age of about 35.

The company has also recently launched Gardasil (Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Types 6, 11, 16 and 18) to fight cervical cancer, which takes the lives of eight women every hour.

Every year, almost 74,000 Indian women — more than a quarter of the global toll — die from cervical cancer. Indian women have a 2.5% lifetime risk of getting cervical cancer, against a worldwide risk of 1.3%.

Anjana Narain, business unit head, vaccines, MSD Pharma, said, “It is the commonest cause of cancer among Indian women and yet a majority of them are not even aware where the cervix is in the body.”

According to Narain, MSD is not looking at the physicians’ base as customers but is adopting an integrated disease management approach, where educating and screening of patients will be two important thrust areas along with “responsible pricing”.

“We are entering areas that people are apathetic to. People in India hardly every go to a doctor for preventive care,” said Narain.

Narain said MSD Pharmaceuticals is aiming to become the number one vaccines company in India by 2013 and the growth will ride on these “novel vaccines”.

The vaccines market in India is worth Rs 1,000 crore, but about Rs 400 crore comprises the self-paid category, where the patient pays for the vaccine. The balance comprises immunisation programmes. While the latter segment  is growing at 30%, the self-paid space is growing at a meagre 0.4%.

m_madhumita@dnaindia.net

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