Bharat Biotech develops new typhoid vaccine

New vaccine comes with company's own R&D involving an eight-year long effort and Rs 65 crore investment

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited on Monday launched a new typhoid vaccine claiming it to be the world's first clinically proven typhoid conjugate vaccine.

Company chairman Krishna M Ella said the new vaccine was developed with own R&D involving an eight-year long effort and a Rs 65-crore investment. The company had attracted national attention when it indigenously developed hepatitis vaccine 10 years ago.

Branded as Typbar-TCV, this fourth generation typhoid vaccine is expected to address shortcomings such as low immunogenicity and being effective for a shorter duration of the existing typhoid vaccines.

A conjugate vaccine is created by attaching a poor antigen to a carrier protein of preferably similar micro organism to enhance the immunogenicity of the vaccine in human beings. “This is the first typhoid conjugate vaccine to get a licence after going through the full scale clinical trial process,” Ella said.

Conjugate variants are not a new thing though an Indian company has to pioneer in developing a similar vaccine for typhoid as the disease load is not big enough to attract global companies, according to Christian Loucq, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, Korea.

According to him, the population in Southeast Asia has the biggest incidence of typhoid  with India and Pakistan being the top two countries. World over about 20 million people suffer from typhoid annually resulting in deaths in up to a quarter of cases.

Bharat Biotech currently produces and markets a third-generation typhoid vaccine and the revenues from the same stand at close to Rs 50 crore. The new product is expected to take the overall revenues to Rs 100 crore, according to Ella.