(^28) COVER STORY BIOSPECTRUM | SEPTEMBER 2018 | http://www.biospectrumindia.com
and vaccines have the potential
to improve the quality of life in
both spectrums. In countries such
as India, there is a pressing
need for low cost, high
quality vaccines that can
address healthcare
challenges”, shares Pankaj R. Patel, Chairman
and Managing Director, Zydus Cadila.
Government’s role
One of the primary forces that is stimulating the
vaccine market growth in India is the increasing
investments in research and development (R&D) by
government funding agencies like the Department
of Biotechnology, the Indian Council of Medical
Research, and the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare. The Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) has entered into an agreement to collaborate
on vaccine research and development with South
Korea based international vaccine development
organisation International Vaccine Institute (IVI).
Through this partnership, India will commit
$5,00,000 (Rs 3.20 crore) annually for a stake in IVI.
“Under ICMR’s latest partnership, vaccine
candidates developed in IVI labs could be brought to
India and given to one of the Indian companies for
further development. IVI may also facilitate further
global testing of vaccine candidates developed in
Indian labs by linking developers here with global
partners. The partnership is
further expected to help
with capacity building for
clinical trials within India
as well. The MoU is also
expected to help support
companies like Bharat Biotech,
which has completed phase I
clinical trials of its chikungunya
vaccine and has expressed
the need for support in
conducting phase II and
III trials for the candidate”, points out Dr Soumya
Swaminathan, DDG, Programmes, World
Health Organisation.
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has
made concerted efforts in the area of vaccine research
and development since its inception in 1986-87
through the Task Force on Medical Biotechnology,
Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme (VAP), National
Technology Mission on Immunisation and National
Jai-Vigyan Mission on Science and Technology for
the generation of new and improved vaccines and
more recently through the Vaccine Grand Challenge
Programme (VGCP).
“Malaria Vaccine Development Programme
(MVDP) is a consortium of DBT, ICGEB, Malaria
Vaccine Initiative (MVI), PATH, EMVI and WHO-
TDR. MVDP was established as an independent
society in July 2010. It takes vaccine projects up
to proof of concept and efficacy studies (Phase II)
and turns them over to companies for Phase III
trial and commercialisation. Overall objective of
the programme is to promote the development of
vaccines against P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria
by leveraging the basic scientific work done by ICGEB
and other scientific groups. Then
Vaccine and Infectious Disease
Research Centre (VIDRC) of
THSTI was set in early 2009 as
one of the niche centres of the
newly established Translational
Health Science and Technology
Institute (THSTI). The aim
of VIDRC is to study
infectious diseases
and pathogens
with a view
to develop
effective vaccines and therapeutics”, explains
Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT.
DBT has also been funding research on
Tuberculosis (TB) for the past two decades with focus
on vaccine development, among others. A number
of novel approaches for generating vaccines against
TB have been identified at ICGEB, Delhi University
South Campus, New Delhi, University of Hyderabad,
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, to name a few.
“In terms of vaccines, India has progressed from
being one of the world’s top vaccine manufacturers to
become an emerging player in the R&D of vaccines.
The DBT is supporting TB initiatives in a major way
by setting up Regional Prospective
Observational Research for
Tuberculosis (RePORT) India
Consortium under the aegis
of Indo-US Vaccine Action
Programme, to enhance or build,
combined biomedical and clinical
research capacity in India. It is a
matter of pride that India makes
more than 60 per cent of the world’s
vaccines and are in the right
direction to become a hub
for vaccine R&D as well”,
states Dr Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary to the
Government of India, Department of Science
and Technology (DST).
Dr Manbeena Chawla
[email protected]
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