The next time someone tells you that vaccines are not profitable and that pharmaceutical firms produce them as sort of a charity venture, ask that person why a company would increase the percentage of its business that is "charity."

 

Sanofi wants to double vaccine business-paper
Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:57am EDT

FRANKFURT, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) wants to double
its vaccine business in the next five years, its chief executive told
a German newspaper on Saturday.
"We want to double it in the next five years. Its share in group sales
will increase as a result from 10-11 percent to 15-16 percent," Chris
Viehbacher told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He said this was one of the reasons Sanofi-Aventis had bought a
company in India, which has new vaccines, such as against cholera, in
the pipeline.

There is also an enormous potential in Asia, he added.