Products
We focus on developing and marketing vaccines and antibodies against a range of infectious diseases. Vaccines play a vital role in protecting against these diseases and have contributed significantly to the improvement of global public health in the twentieth century. In this section you will find information about our marketed products.
Products
Currently we are combating 12 major infectious diseases with our armamentarium of marketed vaccines. In 2008 we sold more than 100 million vaccine doses in more than 80 countries throughout the world, which makes us the largest independent vaccine player in the world. Our product portfolio consists of three distinct focus areas:
- Paediatric
- Travel and Endemic
- Respiratory
Our excellent products represent an untapped source of growth. We are focusing on four activities in order to unlock this growth potential:
Life-cycle management
Prolong sales through life-cycle management. For example, we are seeking to add another antigen to our pentavalent vaccine, Quinvaxem®, to create a novel vaccine and combine our travel vaccines.
Untapped markets
While we sell in more than 80 countries, most of our products are, for example, not sold in the US. For selected products we will go after untapped markets.
Growth by differentiation
We focus on products with higher margins. As noted above, we are already selling our products on a geographical basis. However, we also differentiate our products by creating variations of a vaccine that target a particular market, as we did with Epaxal® by introducing Epaxal® Junior aimed at the paediatric market.
Sales and Marketing
In order to increase penetration, we are also focusing on sales and marketing. Our efforts relating to increasing the penetration of Dukoral® are an example of this type of activity.
In 2008, Crucell's vaccines were administered to a vast number of people worldwide, thereby preventing more than 3 million cases of infectious disease and over 700,000 deaths that would otherwise have occurred.
Quinvaxem®
vaccines sold
(Doses in million units)
Quinvaxem®
Quinvaxem® is a fully liquid vaccine combining antigens for protection against five potentially deadly childhood diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type B. As the first internationally available fully liquid vaccine containing all five of these antigens, Quinvaxem® offers major healthcare advantages, particularly for low-income countries with infrastructure and hygiene problems. Supranational organizations awarded Crucell contracts worth $0.5 billion in the period 2007-2009 to supply Quinvaxem®, confirming the superior quality of our pentavalent vaccine, of which over half had been sold by the end of 2008. The remainder is expect to be sold in 2009. Quinvaxem® was launched in October 2006 and has a market share of over 50% already.
Epaxal®
Epaxal® is the only aluminum-free hepatitis A vaccine on the market. The absence of aluminum reduces the pain caused on administration, offering significant advantages in terms of tolerability. This makes it particularly well suited to the paediatric market. Epaxal® induces protective antibody levels within 10 days of primary vaccination and provides seroprotection for at least 20 years following the second (booster) dose. It can be fitted into the regular immunization schedule for babies.
Hepavax-Gene®
Hepavax-Gene® is a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. It is one of the WHO’s pre-qualified vaccines for active immunization against hepatitis B virus. In December 2008 Crucell announced that Chinese authorities have approved Hepavax-Gene® for use in the private vaccine market in China.
MoRu-Viraten®
MoRu-Viraten® is a safe, well-tolerated and effective vaccine for protection against measles and rubella in children, adolescents and adults. MoRu-Viraten® is free of avian proteins and antibiotics, posing no risk to children with allergies to these substances. The vaccine has been marketed since 1986 and is on the WHO list of vaccines for purchase by UN agencies.
Vivotif®
Vivotif® is a live attenuated typhoid fever vaccine for oral administration. It is the only oral vaccine indicated for use against Salmonella typhi, the most prevalent of the typhoid fever-causing bacteria. The vaccine is indicated for adults and children over the age of five and has an excellent track record for safety, having been on the market for more than 20 years. It is currently licensed in over 30 countries, including in the USA. Recent results suggest that Vivotif® may be unique in also protecting against S. paratyphi, a similar but milder variant of typhoid.
Dukoral®
Dukoral® is a drinkable vaccine with a documented protective effect against diarrhea caused by cholera, as well as traveler’s diarrhea. The vaccine stimulates a protective immune response in the gut and has a demonstrated protective efficacy against cholera of approximately 85%. Dukoral® was first licensed in 1992 and is now licensed in over 60 countries. It is presently the only internationally licensed oral cholera vaccine. To date, over 10 million doses of Dukoral® have been supplied with very few adverse events reported.
Inflexal® V
Inflexal® V is a virosomal adjuvanted vaccine against influenza, based upon the virosome technology developed and patented by the Crucell company, Berna Biotech. It is the only adjuvanted flu vaccine licensed for all age groups (up from six months). The vaccine’s antigen composition follows yearly WHO recommendations.
To find out more about our products, please click on the links below: