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Pharma giant GlaxoSmith Kline was today given a boost when the World Health Organisation endorsed its vaccine against a diarrhoea-causing virus that kills 500,000 children every year.
The WHO said that Glaxo's Rotarix and rival drug RotaTeq, made by United States giant Merck, should be included in all national immunisation programmes to protect against rotavirus.
The rotavirus bug causes diarrhoea and vomiting and was responsible for the hospitalisation of two million children last year.
Both vaccines have been available in Europe and the US for the past three years, but had not previously been tested for use in the developing world, where rotavirus causes the most deaths. Today's WHO recommendation is likely to boost demand for both pharma firms' drugs, but could trigger a race between Merck and Glaxo to win contracts.
The drugs may be bought by national governments as well as distributed by charities.
Merck's RotaTeq vaccine, which is administered in three oral doses to babies and infants, generated £410 million of sales last year, while Brentford-based Glaxo's two-dose Rotarix made £167 million.
The rising profile of vaccines in the developing world will be seen as a vindication of the big push into emerging markets which was charted by GSK's chief executive Andrew Witty when he took over the post in 2007.
Shares in Glaxo, the world's second-largest drugmaker, rose 14 1⁄2p to 1046 1⁄2p.
