Drug-maker Lupin will co-market a vaccine to prevent pneumonia from multinational drug-maker MSD, as part of an India-specific alliance between the two companies.
Lupin will have a non-exclusive licence to market, promote and distribute MSD’s 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine under a different brand name in India, the companies said in a joint statement.
They did not, however, divulge the price of the vaccine. But an industry representative said that the MSD vaccine was priced at Rs 1,155. Lupin’s product will take a couple of months to roll out, the official said, adding that its price was yet to be fixed.
Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae with pneumonia being the most common in adults. The vaccine is an old one, and it protects against 23 types of the infection-causing bacteria, said Nitin Shah, a consultant paediatrician at Mumbai’s Hinduja Hospital.
MSD vaccine, Pneumovax 23 was launched in India in August 2007. And the size of the market for this vaccine is estimated at Rs 13 crore. The tie-up is MSD’s second with an Indian company, the earlier alliance being with Sun Pharma on diabetes drug sitagliptin.
The partnership is Lupin’s fourth in about three years. It has an alliance with Eli Lilly for insulin, Novartis for asthma drug Onbrez, and with Sanofi for two of its central nervous system brands in the Philippines market.