• Home
• Responsibility
• CR Report 2004
• Leadership and advocacy
• GSK's unique business model for vaccines

GSK's unique business model for vaccines

GSK’s new rotavirus vaccine, Rotarix, received its first launch in Mexico in January 2005. As well as Mexico, Rotarix will be launched in other Latin American countries during 2005 and soon after in Asia Pacific countries. It has already been submitted for regulatory approval in more than 20 countries worldwide.

Rotavirus infection is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea and vomiting (gastroenteritis) in children under two. It affects children all over the world but is rarely fatal in developed countries. However in developing countries around 600,000 children die from rotavirus each year.

This is the first time that a major pharmaceutical company has focused the clinical and regulatory strategy for a vaccine first on a region of the world other than the European Union or US. The launch is part of GSK’s unique strategy to deliver vaccines first to people with the greatest medical need.

“GSK has a solid track record of providing vaccines globally for more than 20 years and is constantly developing novel and unique approaches to ensure new vaccines get to those areas of the world who need them most as fast as possible,” said Jean Stéphenne, President and General Manager of GSK Biologicals. “In the case of Rotarix, we focused our clinical and regulatory strategy first on countries where the medical need for a rotavirus vaccine was one of the highest in the world.”

Rotarix was tested in the largest phase III clinical trial ever performed for a vaccine. It involved 70,000 children, mostly in Latin America and Asia but also in US and Europe.

Back to top