Novartis loss-making vaccines division gets British boost

The turnaround prospects for Novartis' loss-making vaccines division were given a boost on Friday as a key committee recommended including the Swiss drugmaker's meningitis B vaccine on Britain's routine vaccination programme. The Basel-based drugmaker said the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had recommended that infants from two months of age be vaccinated with Bexsero to help protect against "MenB", a bacterial infection that can kill in 24 hours and poses the greatest risk to infants. Bexsero is seen as crucial to Novartis' vaccines business, which has struggled to catch up with the market leaders – GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and Merck – and was the only one of the Swiss company's five divisions to report a full-year operating loss in 2013. Novartis is currently considering the future of the business as part of a portfolio review, which is also examining the drugmaker's two other sub-scale businesses, animal health and over-the-counter drugs.