IDT sees big potential in vaccine contracting

IDT Biologika.says demand for vaccines in emerging markets is big chance for Big Pharma and hence a growing niche for contractors with the technical capabilities to carry out such work.

Outsourcing-pharma spoke with IDT’s senior director of business operations, Robert Newman, at CPhI 2010 in Paris, who explained that the recent expansion of the firm’s vaccine production capacity was driven by increasing customer demand.

He explained that while many CMOs are moving into the vaccine manufacturing space such work is not for the “faint of heart” that requires considerable amount of expertise that only the larger contractors possess.

Newman also suggested that vaccine manufacturing is a big opportunity for contractors as, increasingly, Big Pharma firms are targeting growth in emerging markets where disease prevention, rather than treatment, is the dominant trend.