GSK to overtake Sanofi atop meningococcal vaccine market, report predicts

The meningococcal vaccine market is set for a shakeup as GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK)--on the heels of recent acquisitions and a launch--is expected to overtake Sanofi ($SNY) for the top spot in the coming years.

That’s according to a new report from GlobalData, which predicts Bexsero sales will swell to $570 million by 2025, helping propel the U.K. pharma past Sanofi and its Menactra. Also helping GSK, the report says, is the anticipated launch of a novel pentavalent MenABCWY jab, expected to debut in Europe and the U.S. during the period.

Overall, GlobalData’s analysts expect the meningococcal vaccine market to grow from $1.1 billion in 2015 to $1.8 billion in 2025, a 5.4% annual expansion. Driving that will be changes to national immunization programs and the launch of GSK’s MenABCWY, currently in Phase II.

But so far, GSK is riding its momentum with Bexsero and Menveo, which reeled in £115 million ($167 million) and £160 million ($232 million) respectively last year following the pharma’s multibillion-dollar asset swap with Novartis ($NVS). After completing the swap, GSK inked a deal with the U.K. government to incorporate the jab into the country’s national immunization schedule, allowing British infants to access the vaccine at two months, four months and 12 to 13 months.

Demand for the jab was so strong that earlier this year GSK had a temporary shortage of the shot at private NHS clinics in the U.K. that has since been resolved.

But Sanofi Pasteur’s Menactra dwarfed those figures last year, with its sales up 18.2% to €563 million ($639 million). Sanofi has an ACWY conjugate vaccine in Phase II.

Early conservative sales estimates had Pfizer's ($PFE) Trumenba, which like Bexsero also protects against MenB, hitting peak sales of about $225 million in 2019.

- read the report

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