Global vaccine sales “grew by a healthy 16 percent last year, when sales shot up to $22.1 billion, healthcare market research publisher Kalorama Information reported Friday,” according to the Associated Press. Kalorama is also forecasting sales “will rise at a compound annual rate of 9.7 percent during the next five years,” (Johnson, 8/14).

According to a Kalorama press release, future growth will occur “as new product introductions continue and the use of current products expands further” (8/12).

AP writes that vaccines are a “priority research area” for many pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline, which are “working to boost vaccine sales in heavily populated emerging markets including China and India.”

“The Kalorama report noted that sales of children’s vaccines, which account for more than half of the market, are growing at a faster rate than adult vaccines. That trend is expected to continue for the next five years,” AP reports, noting that adult vaccine sales have been driven by last year’s H1N1 flu epidemic (8/14).

Merck & Co. To Donate 1M Pneumococcal Vaccine Doses To Nicaragua

The AP/Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Merck & Co. will “donate a million doses of its pneumococcal vaccine Pneumovax 23 to people in Nicaragua, according to [Project HOPE] an international aid organization.” The company will donate the vaccine and $700,000 to “to help improve health care in Nicaragua,” especially among HIV/AIDS patients, adults over 50 and people with chronic diseases (8/12).