Biological E to make two of Takeda's vaccines for India and China markets

Japanese firm will transfer its measles and acellular pertussis vaccine bulk technology to BE

Japanese global pharmaceutical company Takeda and Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Biological E. Limited(BE) announced on Monday that they have entered into a collaboration under which two licensing agreements to expedite the development and delivery of affordable combination vaccines have been executed.

Under the agreements, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited will conduct a transfer from Japan to BE its existing measles and acellular pertussis vaccine bulk production technology, including the provision of technical services such as support in infrastructure review, training for production and quality control, technical assistance in process development, preclinical study design, and production of clinical batch and also the first commercial batches.

BE will scale up the bulk production technology transferred from Takeda and will be solely responsible for conducting and funding development activities for the combination vaccines. BE has rights to use Takeda's measles vaccine technology for a combination of MR vaccine and the right to use Takeda's pertussis vaccine technology for any pertussis-containing combination vaccine.

The company will have commercialisation rights for the MR and pertussis vaccines in India, China and selected markets worldwide as defined in the agreements.

"At the core of our mission is to develop and commercialise affordable vaccines. We have successfully demonstrated this through our DTwP franchise in developing countries, and this collaboration allows us to serve additional markets and diversify our geographic presence. In the context of MR, we look forward to contributing to the measles elimination goals and protection against rubella," Biological E. managing director Mahima Datla said on this occasion.

Takeda has sold both the measles and pertussis vaccines in the Japanese market for more than 20 years.

"Access to medicines is one of Takeda's core values, and these agreements align with Takeda's strategic goals to make high-impact contributions to global public health, either alone or through partners," Rahul Singhvi, chief operating officer of Takeda Vaccines Business Unit. " These two agreements along with our current vaccine pipeline underscore our global commitment to address important infectious diseases across the globe."