Jan 30, 2017: How the Pediatric Drugs and Vaccines Market is Positioned in India? India, a home of the largest pediatric population of the world and also has the highest number of annual child births in the world. However, almost 80-90% of the drugs used in children presently have never been studied for their efficacy in pediatric population. In India, results of the studies conducted in adult population are extrapolated for use in children.

There are no specific medicine development regulations for pediatrics. Indian clinical practice relies heavily upon safety and efficacy data published in other developed countries or on inference from adult dosing. India pediatric drugs and vaccine market has witnessed tremendous growth in the last five years largely due to high number of annual births recorded, launch of generic formulations of several pediatric drugs including flavored TB drugs, inclusion of several vaccines in the national immunization schedule of the country and inclining coverage of children vaccination under national immunization schedule.

The market for pediatric drugs and vaccine in India has been dominated by pediatric drugs, driven by the availability of large portfolio of drugs for treatment of several diseases as compared to a limited number of vaccines for prevention of some infectious diseases. High efficacy of vaccines has ensured prevention against diseases by virtue of few doses of vaccines. On the other hand, repeated incidence of some or the other non-vaccine preventable medical conditions coupled with comparatively heavy requirement of drug doses have resulted in a far greater usage of drugs. India pediatric drugs and vaccine market has grown at an overwhelming pace in the last five years, exhibiting rapid growth…

How has the Pediatric Drugs Segment Performed? Huge child mortality is registered in the country. Respiratory diseases including pneumonia and tuberculosis are other commonly treatable conditions for which drugs find extensive usage in the country. Millions of children die due to pneumonia every year. Owing to less prevalence of lifestyle diseases amongst pediatric population, market share of drugs meant for management of diseases has been low. Drug meant for management of diseases are typically chronic diseases, particularly degenerative non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, HIV/AIDS and diabetes amongst others.

Anti-infectives were the most frequently prescribed drug class by pediatricians, with over ~% of the prescriptions had some form of prescribed antibiotics. This is due to the wide scale prevalence of children being affected by respiratory diseases or some sort of microbial infections at regular basis. Anti-histamines are drugs used for the treatment of allergies. Owing to high occurrence of allergies amongst children, anti-histamines are next best selling drug class. Commonly prescribed anti-histamines include chlorphenamine, dexamethasone, epinephrine, hydrocortisone and prednisolone. In India, many children aged between 5-11 years are known to suffer from asthma and the prevalence is expected to rise further with growing industrialization and changing climate / biodiversity.

What is the Scenario of the Pediatric Vaccines Segment? India has emerged as the leading vaccine producer in the world, in terms of doses of vaccines produced, and has major vaccine manufacturing facilities across the country. Vaccines manufactured in these facilities are offered in both national and international market (over 150 countries). With millions of births every year, the domestic market for vaccines in India is huge. The country has been self sufficient in meeting the domestic needs, with private sector responsible for providing a large part of the supply needs. However, India lacks in coverage rate of basic vaccines. The Indian domestic market for Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) alone is over millions of doses. The R&D cost of UIP vaccines is minimal; however, the non-UIP vaccines involve technology licensing, R&D, infrastructure and operational costs. In addition, stringent regulatory requirements for the licensing of newer vaccines, add up to the cost.

Most measles vaccines used globally are produced in India. Moreover, Indian firms are big suppliers to the UN agencies, accounting major percent of the vaccines purchased by organization every year. India has emerged as a major vaccine producer in recent times by focusing on geographical regions where vaccines are not funded by the UN or charitable organizations and strategic ties with UN and government agencies to supply vaccines at affordable prices. The Indian pediatric market for vaccines has grown at a remarkable rate during recent years.

The growth was attributed to some crucial vaccines (polio, hepatitis B, MMR and BCG) manufactured by Indian companies constantly featured in WHO’s prequalified list coupled with the fact that Indian companies (Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, Panacea Biotec) acted as major suppliers of vaccines to WHO, UNICEF, PATH and other UN agencies. The market for vaccines is growing drastically…