Specialist in a niche market
ALK-Abelló is a specialist in a niche market. The company produces and markets allergy vaccines for patients with specific diagnoses. This means that besides focusing on alleviating the symptoms of allergy, the company also produces vaccines which stimulate the immune system of people with allergies. The vaccines have a potentially long-term curative effect.

From injections to tablets
One important element of ALK-Abelló's further development is to improve patients' quality of life by offering more accessible and user-friendly products. This is reflected above all in the company's development of tablet-based allergy vaccines. The grass pollen allergy tablet GRAZAX^® is expected to be launched at the end of 2006. Clinical data show that GRAZAX^® can be used as an effective and safe baseline treatment for patients suffering from grass pollen allergy. Combined with its user-friendliness, this means that the tablet will target more patients than ALK-Abelló's existing injection-based and drop-based products.

Expanding the market
The market potential for tablet-based vaccines is substantial. There are more than 150 million registered patients suffering from allergy in the USA and Europe alone, of whom 50% suffer from grass pollen allergy and/or house dust mite allergy.

The vaccine against grass pollen allergy will in the first instance target the 7-10 million diagnosed patients suffering from grass pollen allergy currently undergoing treatment in Europe. Only 3-6% of these patients are currently being treated with allergy vaccination. ALK-Abelló believes that the tablet-based vaccine has the potential to increase this share significantly.