Japan's vaccine makers target dengue, cholera and malaria - Nikkei Asian Review

TOKYO -- Japanese drug developers are preparing novel vaccines for the market, designed to combat the spread of dengue fever, cholera and malaria by using the latest in biopharmaceutical technology.

Takeda Pharmaceutical will apply for approval of its dengue fever vaccine next year, hoping to launch the product in 2020. The company will supply the vaccine in Latin American and Asian countries where many of the 3.9 billion people at risk of contracting the disease live.

Other drug companies look to market vaccines made from genetically modified plants. Astellas Pharma last year began clinical tests of an oral cholera vaccine derived from rice. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma aims to commercialize technology that quickly produces a flu vaccine from tobacco leaves.

Nobelpharma is developing a malaria vaccine with Osaka University, aiming to commercialize the inoculation in the late 2020s. The vaccine is expected to repel the spread of a disease that infects more than 200 million people a year and results in over 400,000 deaths, mostly among children.

Just four drugmakers, such as Pfizer in the U.S., control 90% of the $27 billion global vaccine market. Demand is set to climb 7% yearly in tandem with population growth. Profitability in this field is small compared with cancer drugs, but the low risk of expiring patents supports steady revenue. Vaccine research also benefits from sustainability funding provided by internationally recognized groups, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as from state subsidies.



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