>Vaccines Market; Apollo (Capex Plans), Fortis (Fund Raising); Sun Pharma (Effexor XR Launch Closer) (CITI)

■ Bill Gates, vaccines and a $1.5bn Carrot — Bill Gates has said that his foundation would spend $10bn on vaccine delivery and R&D over the next 10 years. Gates devoted a chunk of his annual letter, published earlier this week, to vaccines “We expect that manufacturers will commit to building factories much earlier than they
would otherwise in order to compete for this money,” Gates wrote in his letter this week. (WSJ Health Blog)

■ Apollo Hospitals to invest Rs18bn in 2 yrs — Apollo Hospitals today said it will invest around Rs18bn in the next two years for increasing the number of hospitals under its operation to 70 with a capacity of 13,500 beds. At present, the company has 46 hospitals under its operation with a capacity of around 8,000 beds. It also announced opening its 47th facility in Bhubaneswar. (Business Standard)

■ Fortis to raise Rs4.5bn as part of additional capex — As part of an additional outlay of Rs6bn to fund its capital expenditure programmes, Fortis Healthcare plans to raise Rs4.5bn through a combination of term loans from banks as well as internal accruals. Yogesh Sareen, CFO, said 60% of this would be raised through internal accrual and the remainder by term loans from banks. (Business Standard)

■ Sun gets a boost as FDA rejects rival Osmotica’s plea — Sun Pharma's plan to launch a copy of Wyeth’s anti-depressant Effexor XR got a big boost after the US drug regulator rejected rival Osmotica’s appeal. The FDA rejected Osmotica’s appeal a few days ago, though the FDA’s website is yet to notify the development, Sun Pharma CMD Dilip Shanghvi said. Though Osmotica’s second petition is still pending, Mr Shanghvi said it was not a significant challenge. (Economic Times)

■ Other stories (Pg 2) — Cipla, Wockhardt, GSK, Sanofi-Aventis, Philippines plans further drug price cuts.

To read the full report: INDIAN PHARMA