Products
We focus on developing and marketing vaccines and antibodies against a range of infectious diseases. Vaccines play a vital role in protecting against these diseases and have contributed significantly to the improvement of global public health in the twentieth century. In this section you will find information about our key marketed products.
| Market area | Product | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Paediatric | Quinvaxem® | Fully liquid vaccine for protection against five childhood diseases |
| Hepavax-Gene® | Recombinant hepatitis B vaccine | |
| MoRu-Viraten® | Vaccine for protection against measles and rubella (all age groups) | |
| Epaxal® Junior | Low dosage unique aluminum-free hepatitis A vaccine (0.25ml) | |
| Travel and endemic | Epaxal® | Unique aluminum-free hepatitis A vaccine |
| Vivotif® | Unique oral typhoid vaccine | |
| Dukoral® | Internationally licensed oral vaccine against cholera (and ETEC) | |
| Respiratory | Inflexal® V | Virosomal adjuvanted influenza (all age groups) |
Our three market areas:
Prior to 2006, our main focus was the development of technology to support the research, development and manufacture of biotech products. The acquisitions of Berna Biotech, Berna Product Corporation and SBL Vaccines in 2006 expanded our capabilities, creating a fully-integrated biopharma company. Berna Biotech, Berna Product Corporation and SBL Vaccines were selling approximately 30 products worldwide. We divested and rationalized the portfolio focusing on those with higher margins and growth potential. As a result, we now have a product portfolio with three distinct focus areas:
- Paediatric
- Travel and endemic
- Respiratory
Our products represent an untapped source of growth. We are focusing on four activities in order to unlock this growth potential:
Life–cycle management
Prolong sales through life–cycle management. For example, we are seeking to add another antigen to our pentavalent vaccine, Quinvaxem®, to create a novel vaccine and combine our travel vaccines.
Untapped markets
While we sell in about 60 countries, most of our prime sellers are, for example, not sold in the U.S. For selected products we will go after untapped markets.
Segmentation
Segment the products, focusing on those with higher margins. As noted above, we are already segmenting our products on a geographical basis. However, we also segment our products by creating variations of a vaccine that target a particular market, as we did with Epaxal® by introducing Epaxal® Junior aimed at the paediatric market.
Sales and Marketing
In order to increase penetration, we are also focusing on sales and marketing. Our efforts relating to increasing the penetration of Dukoral® are an example of this type of activity.
Quinvaxem®
One of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) prime goals is the reduction of child mortality. The contribution of immunization towards meeting this goal is indisputable, and Crucell’s Quinvaxem® is the only fully liquid pentavalent vaccine that has been approved by the WHO (as shown above).
Quinvaxem®, first launched in 2006, combines antigens for protection against five important childhood diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b – one of the leading causes of bacterial meningitis in children.
Initial indications are that the majority of markets prefer a fully liquid vaccine due to the ease of use. Quinvaxem® gives them that option. Sales for 2008 are expected to far exceed 2007 levels (the chart, below right, shows the number of doses sold in 2006 and 2007).
Quinvaxem® was co–developed with Novartis (Chiron Corporation) which provides four of the five components as bulk. We produce the vaccine at our Korean facilities.
Epaxal®
Epaxal® is the only aluminum–free hepatitis A vaccine on the market. The absence of aluminum reduces the pain caused on administration, offering significant advantages in terms of tolerability. This makes it particularly well suited to the paediatric market. Early 2008 we launched Epaxal® Junior to exploit that opportunity – a good example of our segmentation strategy. Epaxal® induces protective antibody levels within 10 days of primary vaccination and provides seroprotection for at least 20 years following the second (booster) dose. It can be fitted into the regular immunization schedule for babies.
Dukoral®
Dukoral® is a drinkable vaccine with a documented protective effect against diarrhea caused by cholera, as well as traveler’s diarrhea. The vaccine stimulates a protective immune response in the gut and has a demonstrated protective efficacy against cholera of approximately 85%.
Dukoral® is very well known in Scandinavia. In Sweden, for example, there are estimated to be around 1.2 million travelers a year; 37% of them seek advice relating to traveler’s diarrhea. Of these, 90% use Dukoral®. However, the number of travelers seeking advice, as well as the percentage using Dukoral®, in other countries is much lower. As a result, we are relaunching Dukoral® in continental Europe in order to develop this untapped market.