Top 5 Companies in the Vaccines Market, 2020 | Fortune Business Insights™

Vaccines have saved humanity from a wide variety of diseases since their inception in the 1790s in the UK. Today, vaccine formulation, production, and distribution are massive commercial exercises undertaken by giant pharmaceutical companies, giving the global vaccines market a highly consolidated structure. GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer, and Sanofi currently dominate the market share, controlling around 65%-70% of the market. The market is well-developed in North America and Europe due to the large and robust presence of pharmaceutical bigwigs in these continents and efficient procurement of vaccines by non-governmental organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the public-private global health alliance GAVI.

In terms of revenue, the five leading vaccine products in 2019 were:

• Prevnar-13 Pneumococcal Conjugate by Pfizer that generated USD 5.95 billion in 2019


• Gardasil HPV (Human Papillomavirus) by Merck that generated USD 3.7 billion in 2019


• Shingrix Shingles by GlaxoSmithKline that generated USD 2.3 billion in 2019


• Pentacel (for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, and Influenza B) by Sanofi that generated USD 2.2 billion in 2019


• Fluzone Influenza by Sanofi that generated USD 2.1 billion in 2019

According to Fortune Business Insights™, the vaccine market is expected to reach USD 104.87 billion by 2027, exhibiting a healthy CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period, 2020-2027.

Top 5 Players in the Vaccines Market:

GlaxoSmithKline (The UK)

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the largest player in the global vaccines market, dominating the market with a 20% revenue share and generating USD 9.1 billion in sales in 2019. The company is known for its vaccines against meningococcal disease, polio, hepatitis B, DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis), and selling 701 million doses globally in 2019. GSK is partnering with Sanofi to develop a protein-based vaccine candidate, which completed its Phase 2 trials in September and will enter Phase 3 trials towards 2020. It also has 15 pipeline candidates for Malaria, COPD, Shigella Diarrhea, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus. However, the coronavirus pandemic led to an 8% decline in its vaccine sales in the first nine months of 2020.

Merck & Co. (The US)

Accounting for an 18% share, Merck & Co. is the second-largest player in the market, generating revenues worth USD 8.4 billion in 2019. The company’s vaccines against rotavirus, varicella, pneumococcal, and HPV dominated its sales in 2019, with the company selling 190 million vaccine doses globally. Merck has teamed up with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 that leverages the recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (rVSV) platform. The clinical trials for the vaccine were supposed to commence in the latter half of 2020. It also acquired Themis, a research-based pharmaceutical company, to formulate another coronavirus vaccine using a measles virus vector platform. Moreover, the company also features two late-stage vaccines against cytomegalovirus and pneumococcal.

Pfizer (The US)

This pharmaceutical behemoth holds a 14% share in the global vaccines market, with the company bringing USD 6.5 billion in sales revenues in 2019. The company’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, which is developed in collaboration with BioNTech SE, was the first to get approved by the UK’s Medical and Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The first doses were administered in the UK on December 8, 2020. Pfizer also boasts late-stage vaccine candidates for Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Meningococcal, Pneumococcal, and Clostridioides difficile.

Sanofi (France)

Sanofi is a major player in the market, occupying the fourth position with a 13% share in the global market. The company has earned its reputation as a pharmaceutical bigwig due to its role as a leading supplier of vaccines against DTaP, Polio, Haemophilus Influenzae Type B, and Influenza. These also accounted for a large portion of the company’s USD 6.3 billion vaccine sales in 2019. Sanofi is joining forces with GSK to create an adjuvant recombinant protein-based vaccine for COVID-19. Additionally, the company is also collaborating with the US-based Translate Bio to develop an mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine.

CSL Behring (The US)

CSL Behring holds the fifth-largest position in the, accounting for a 3% revenue share in the global market. Generating vaccine sales worth USD 1.1 billion in 2019, CSL primarily focuses on developing vaccination against influenza since the acquisition of influenza vaccine products in 2015 from Novartis. In November 2020, CSL announced that one of its facilities in Australia has started the production of a potential coronavirus vaccine candidate developed jointly by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.     

COVID-19: An Historic Opportunity for Vaccine Makers

The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced humanity’s belief in vaccines as the contagion continues to ravage the world. Vaccines against the coronavirus are being developed with unmatched alacrity by large and small pharmaceutical companies, and the most promising candidates that have emerged are as follows:

• The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by the US-based leader Pfizer and the German startup BioNTech received regulatory clearance in the UK and awaiting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. The companies claim that this vaccine can prevent the incidence of COVID in 90% of people, and 50 million doses of it can be administered by the end of 2020.


• Moderna, another US-based company, developed a similar RNA-based vaccine, which completed Phase 3 trials in November, supposedly has an efficacy of 95%. The company can deliver 50 million shots by 2020.


• AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford’s adenovirus-based vaccine candidate, AZD1222, was shown to be 70% in Phase 3 clinical trials that were completed in November. According to the company, it can supply 3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021. AstraZeneca is also collaborating with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India to develop the Covidshield vaccine.

What Lies Ahead for the Vaccines Market?

The indispensability of vaccines as the frontline guardians of public health has been reiterated by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. More importantly, the current crisis has shown that potential pandemics can catch humans napping. Building community-based immunity through vaccines will be the most critical weapon in battling such health crises in the foreseeable future.

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