Vaccine Market

The overall vaccine industry has strengthened itself in terms of its growth rate, with a relatively higher growth rate than most other healthcare market segments. Vaccination has been an invaluable addition to better public health, and has helped millions of children, adults and animals from deadly diseases. The CDC stated in a report that diseases such as diphtheria, polio, and smallpox have been fully eliminated, while measles, tetanus, and rubella are some of the disease that have been greatly controlled within the U.S., through timely administration of vaccines. Thus, vaccination is considered as the most effective form of all preventive measures.

The U.S. vaccine market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 4.3% from 2014 to 2020.

Education and Awareness Bode Well for Vaccination Rates

The U.S. human vaccine market is expected to expand swiftly owing to drivers such as the lowered risk of serious and fatal side effects with vaccination, increasing awareness regarding vaccination among common people as well as healthcare providers, federal government’s strict recommendations for immunization against certain diseases, and growing demand for adult vaccines. Similarly, the U.S. animal vaccine market is likely to be propelled by the rising incidence rates of zoonotic diseases and the growing risk factor of animal to human transfer of diseases and infections. The rate of pet adoptions is also rising, especially in urban locations, along with a growth in the consumption rate of poultry products and meat. Over the recent past, a number of remarkable animal vaccines have made it through the pipeline and past approvals, including Once PMH IN and Prime Pac PRRS+ further improving the growth rate of this market.

However, increasingly strict guidelines and regulations for the lengthy and time consuming approval process has resulted in the increase in cost of several new vaccines. The development efforts on future pipeline vaccines is also slowing down due to the high costs of development, thereby restraining the U.S. human vaccine market. The manufacturers and distributors of both human and animal vaccines also face the issues related to storage, handling, and transportation of vaccines. Manufacturers require heavy usage of cold storage chains for over 90% of all vaccines currently produced, in order to prevent loss of potency and efficacy by exposure to higher temperatures, considerably increasing the costs of transportation and equipment maintenance.

Pneumococcal Vaccines to Top Charts Till 2020

The U.S. human vaccine market can be classified into pediatric and adult vaccines, in terms of the type of vaccines. Based on antigens, the U.S. human vaccine market has been categorized into hepatitis, influenza, meningococcal, pneumococcal, human papillomavirus (HPV), combination vaccines and others. Among these, combination vaccines market had represented the leading antigen segment in human vaccines for 2013, based on revenue generation.

The animal vaccines market in the U.S. have been segmented into livestock and companion vaccines. The latter segment is further categorized into canine and feline, while livestock vaccines segment can be been segmented into ovine, poultry, porcine, bovine, and equine. Canine vaccines took a relatively larger share than the feline vaccines in 2013, in terms of revenue, due to the higher average cost of canine vaccinations.

The U.S. human vaccine market is dominated by players such as GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Sanofi, Pfizer, Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., and Novartis International AG. These players have successfully cornered critical areas of the market through the introduction of innovative vaccines and new ones in the pipeline. Zoetis, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck Animal Health), Sanofi (Merial, animal health division of Sanofi) and Boehringer Ingelheim are the key companies in the U.S. animal vaccine market.