In a move at variance with the general disinterest among most pharmaceutical firms in producing vaccines, Kuo Kwang Biotech Corporation (國光) plans to invest NT$500 million to build another factory by the end of this year to produce a three-in-one vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus.
Kuo Kwang will license the technology for the new three-in-one vaccine from the Kito Sato research organization of Japan, from whom it has also licensed technology for the production of vaccines for Japanese encephalitis and tetanus. Lin Wen-Lii (
The government is strongly encouraging the development of biotechnology, and vaccines are among its promotional areas which include diagnostic reagents, herbal medicines, biopesticides, and active pharmaceutical ingredients. But besides the National Institute of Preventive Medicine, under the Department of Health, Kuo Kwang is the only manufacturer in Taiwan of vaccines for human use.
That had not always been the case. According to Lin, there used to be several human-use vaccine manufacturers in Taiwan a number of years ago, but they all withdrew from the business. Industry experts think the reason for this, and for why others are unwilling to enter the human-use vaccine business, is because the domestic market is too small and the profit is low.
There's also the cost. "Developing a new vaccine requires a large investment because it has to go through strict clinical trials," said Lee Pin-ang (
Though large multinational firms have taken most of the world market, Kuo Kwang's Lin thinks vaccines still have potential if companies choose a certain niche for their products. "For instance, very few US and European firms develop vaccines for Japanese encephalitis because the disease is uncommon in western countries," said Lin.
According to industry experts, the vaccine industry is constantly developing new technologies to make vaccines safer and more effective. As a result, if a company doesn't keep up with the latest technology, it will be out. Life Guard, for example, licensed the technology for using plasma to produce vaccines for hepatitis B. But later Merck and SmithKline Beecham developed better vaccines at cheaper prices through genetic engineering. As a result, Life Guard's vaccines lost competitiveness and the company had to withdraw from the market.
Indeed, as Merk and SmithKline Beecham showed, the latest technology to produce vaccines is through genetic engineering. According to Willie Lin (
In contrast, the most advanced technology uses genetic engineering to locate that protein in the virus which causes the human body to produce a stronger antibody reaction. So with just one type of protein in the virus injected into the human body, the method is safer than injecting the whole virus.
According to statistics provided by Kuo Kwang, Taiwan's market for human-use vaccines stands at more than NT$300 million. The US vaccines market stood at around US$1.5 billion in 1998 and is estimated to rise to about US$4.5 billion by 2006.
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