Vaccines for Pregnant Women Could Be Big Business for Big Pharma

Vaccine makers are testing a new boundary: expectant mothers.

Pregnant women have until recently been off limits, even though researchers long ago saw potential in maternal inoculations that could save lives.

“It took me awhile to figure out what the problem was,” says Carol Baker of Baylor College of Medicine, who has studied a bacteria called group B streptococcus that can cause meningitis in infants. “The problem was the word ‘pregnancy.’”

It’s not any more. Companies including GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novavax Inc. and Pfizer Inc. have concluded that baby-protecting vaccines for expectant mothers could be big business. They’re working on inoculations against group ...