GSK TO EXPAND VACCINE BUSINESS IN INDIA

GlaxoSmithKline Pharma (GSK), the India-based subsidiary of the British drugmaker, plans to vastly expand its vaccines business in India, the company has announced. GSK is currently conducting clinical trials in India on vaccines against rotavirus, cervical cancer, hepatitis B and polio.

GSK plans to market Rotarix, one of the company's newer vaccines against rotaviral diarrhea - which primarily affects young children — in India within the year. The two-dose oral vaccine has already reached the public market in Brazil and Panama. Cervarix, GSK's targeted vaccine for cervical cancer, will also be launched in India — the company expects to register it there in early 2008.

GSK is also in the process of setting up a manufacturing facility at Nasik, in the eastern part of the country, the company reported.