Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched country’s first indigenously developed diarrhea vaccine, Rotavac to be commercially made available in the local market within next week. The rotavirus vaccine combats the main cause of diarrhoea — the second largest killer of children under the age of five worldwide. In India, at least 1,00,000 infant die due to rotavirus diarrhea.
If included under the Government’s national immunization programme, vaccine maker Bharat Biotech has agreed to provide it at $1 (Approximately Rs60), however, there would be no relief on the price front in the private sector. The parents will have to shell out Rs1,200, which is Rs100 higher than those available. The infant has to be given three oral doses to save it from the disease.
“We will sell it at Rs100 per dose higher than those being sold by the multi-national pharma firms as we have realised higher the cost higher it is tagged as a quality product,” said Bharat Biotech MD Dr Krishna Ella. The Health Ministry has decided to include rotavirus vaccines in the national immunization programme later this year.
Ella said that we will supply the first indigenously developed diarrhea vaccine to global markets and UN procurement agencies at a cut-price of $ 1, making it the cheapest vaccine manufactured so far globally. The company has an installed capacity of 300 million doses annually in Hyedrabad and plans to expand it to 500 million doses per year.
“During trials, Rotavac was found to be safe and effective in the prevention of Rotavirus diarrhea and reducing hospitalization due to diarrhea. Results from the pivotal phase-III clinical trials were published in lancet during 2014,” Dr Ella said.
The vaccine development project is a public-private partnership project between the Hyderabad based company and a host of national and international research institutes like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences , Department of Biotechnology, the Gates Foundation, Programme for Appropriate Technologies in Health, Centers for Disease Control etc.