A sign of the times? When Sanofi-Aventis presented its 2007 results earlier this week, it trumpeted the 14.5 percent sales growth in its vaccines group. That's more than double its pharma growth--and it's without Gardasil, because Sanofi doesn't consolidate its Merck joint venture revenues. Now, vaccines account for 10 percent of group revenues. As In Vivo notes, "Rarely have so many of Big Pharma's slides been devoted to this once-unfashionable category."
At Sanofi, the vaccine division is the only group whose staff is growing amid company-wide job cuts. It saw the largest growth in R&D spending, and could even be immune from this year's research budget freeze. That's quite a turnabout for the red-headed stepchild of the pharma business.
- check out the report from In Vivo