Several drug companies are gearing up to go full throttle into the Indian vaccines market with programs that go beyond pushing products and seek to build up public health awareness on a larger scale. GSK, Sanofi, Merck, Novartis and Pfizer are in the fray with local players Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, and Panacea Biotec.

Protectimmun GMBH aims to leverage findings of a large epidemiological study showing that people exposed early in life to farms have reduced tendency to develop respiratory and other allergies. The German start-up thinks a component of barn dust can help train the human immune system so that it never perceives ordinary environmental substances as allergens.