GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-base drug group, were given a jolt by its brokers when one of them expressed serious reservations over its new vaccine and another stated that its research arm needed overhaul.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley expressing doubts over launch of Cervarix, vaccine to prevent cervilic cancer, in US until 2014, switched GSK to ‘underweight’.

This has given a severe blow to GSK in its attempts to capture the market currently dominated by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis, cancer vaccine Gardasil which is being sold in US and European Union. The bank says that GSK is facing series of patent enquiries and has lowered its 2010 earnings per share forecast by 10%. The vaccine under clouds of doubts represents a 25% of GKS’ revenue growth in the next 4 years, under such adverse conditions. The bank therefore switched it to ‘underweight’.

US Food and Drug Administration did not approve any adjuvant since the 1930s, and expressed apprehensions that vaccine could cause heart disease in elderly patients.GSK recently declared that the safety profile of Cervarix is very strong as reflected in the analysis involving over 65,000 patients. It saw no significant difference between Cervarix and control groups with respect to auto-immune disorders.