Pfizer to push Prevenar beyond large Chinese cities

Pfizer Inc, the world’s largest drug maker, aims to push sales of its Prevenar vaccine for children beyond large Chinese cities in collaboration with partner Shanghai Pharmaceutical and possibly other new partners.

“The way to do that is through arrangements with individual cities or some of the provinces that have shown interest in certain other products to establish local programs,” Pfizer’s global president for vaccines Mark Swindell told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday.

“We are constantly evaluating the landscape and if we are presented with the opportunity to expand our operations (with) other partners, we will take advantage of that,” said Swindell, while on a business trip in Beijing.

Prevenar, known as Prevnar in the United States and one of Pfizer’s top-selling products, prevents infection by streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that can cause pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis. It is a major killer of children, claiming up to 1.6 million lives a year globally.

Prevenar’s global sales amounted to $3.7 billion in 2010.

“China is such an important opportunity for a company like Pfizer with a population of well over one billion citizens, a vaccine market that is already large,” said Swindell. He said China’s vaccine market was worth US$2.5 billion in 2010.

“It is expected to grow dramatically over the next several years,” Swindell said.

Prevenar sales in China, in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Najing, amount to “several million doses” a year, he said.

“But if you compared the adoption of the vaccine to the number of newborn each year, we are still really scratching the surface,” Swindell said.

PREVENAR 13

Pfizer faces intense pressure to keep revenues up with the imminent loss on November 30 of patent protection in the United States for its $10-billion-a-year cholesterol drug Lipitor, the best-selling prescription drug in the world.

It scored a crucial victory this year when European regulators recommended approval for another of its vaccines, Prevenar 13, for use in adults aged 50 and over.

Prevenar protects against seven strains of the streptococcus pneumoniae, while Prevenar 13 protects against 13. A competing vaccine, Synflorix by GlaxoSmithKline, protects against 10 strains.

“Pneumococcal disease is very important in young kids but it also emerges as a substantial burden of disease in older adults. Once people hit 50, they start to suffer increased burden of pneumonia and other pneumococcal syndromes,” Swindell said.

“We will be introducing Prevenar 13 for adults very soon. We have had approvals in the last week from countries in the EU, Australia. We anticipate an approval in the United states early next year and we have approvals in certain Asian and Latin American countries as well,” he said.

He added that the first countries in Asia where Prevenar 13 will be launched for adults would be Thailand and the Philippines, where approvals have already been obtained.

Prevenar 13 was approved for use in infants and young children in Europe in December 2009 and in the United States in February 2010.

Pfizer’s biopharmaceuticals business, of which the vaccines business is a key component, was responsible for 86 percent of the company’s total revenues in 2010 and 91 percent in 2009 and 2008.

Among its other business units are nutrition, animal health and consumer health products.

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By Tan Ee Lyn and Donny Kwok

HONG KONG