Panacea to supply pentavalent vaccine to Unicef
This article was originally published in Scrip
Panacea Biotecis set to supply its fully liquid combination pentavalent vaccine, EasyFive (DTwP+ Hep B+ Hib), to Unicef for 2008 and 2009. The company has received an award notification valued at $34.2 million for EasyFive, making it the first Indian company to get such a contract.
EasyFive was pre-qualified by the WHOin July. The product is available in different markets with antigens used from different sources. In India the product uses Hib from Novartis Vaccines, while EasyFive prequalified by the WHO uses Hib developed by Panacea.
Pentavalent vaccines are used by UN agencies to vaccinate children from the developing world. The market for pentavalent vaccines is expected to exceed $1 billion annually, of which UN agencies are expected to procure vaccines worth more than $350 million by 2009. Panacea also expects the Indian government to include pentavalent vaccines in its expanded programme of immunisation.
Panacea, which had earlier been pre-qualified by the WHO for the combination vaccines, EasyFour (DTP plus Hib) and Ecovac (DTP plus Hep B), is also a prequalified supplier of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) and hepatitis B vaccine to UN agencies.