Preventive healthcare is high on the government's agenda and so is the case for GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, which believes vaccines will drive its India growth. Currently vaccines contribute over 15 per cent to the company's revenues and are growing faster than the base business, which saw 12 per cent growth this quarter.

Dr Hasit Joshipura, vice president of South Asia and MD of India, said, "Vaccine market is highly underpenetrated in India. So we expect growth to come in from there. If our base business grows at double digits our vaccines segment will grow at 50 per cent more than that."

However, GSK holds a quarter of the Indian vaccine market and sells 14 vaccines—top sales account from its Hepatitis A and B vaccine, Diptheria and Tetanus Toxoid vaccine and Cervarix.

Besides, GSK's Human Rotavirus Vaccine was the sales spinner last year. Year 2010 will see GSK launch its six-component vaccine and Pneumococcal vaccine in India, which will be a competition for Wyeth's Prevenar.

Analysts feel GSK's global products could make a mark in a market, which has players like Bharati Biotech, Serum Institute and Panacea Biotech among others.

Ranjit Kapadia, VP-Institutional Research of HDFC Securities, said, "Business can grow at 15 per cent with new launches and existing volumes. The vaccine market is less competitive, which gives companies pricing power and better margins."

The government's drive to improve the skewed vaccine penetration in the country brings opportunity for vaccine makers and GSK with its vaccine portfolio wishes to be a part of the mass immunisation programme.

Although being part of government’s immunisation programme helps create an otherwise difficult market and sell volumes, analysts believe GSK's growth will mainly come through its patented product launches, of which only a fraction has come to India.