IIL's Raksha-Ovac becomes Rs 100-cr brand

Raksha-Ovac, the flagship brand of Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), has crossed the Rs 100-crore sales mark, emerging as the largest animal health brand in the country.

Raksha-Ovac is a vaccine that offers protection to cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats against the foot and mouth disease (FMD). Vaccination is the only means to control the FMD, which is identified as an economically-devastating disease of the livestock industry across the world.

“It is estimated that the milk production loss and the draught power loss in India is about Rs 3,000 crore a year. Further, most of the developed countries do not allow any livestock products import from FMD-endemic countries, affecting the exports of the livestock sector. This has affected dairy and livestock exports from India quite badly,” said IIL managing director KV Balasubramaniam.

 

The vaccination drive against the FMD got a boost when the central government initiated the FMD Control Programme (FMDCP) during 2004 in 54 districts of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Owing to its huge manufacturing capacity and lower costs, IIL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Diary Development Board, has emerged as the largest supplier of FMD vaccine to this programme.

In a press release on Tuesday, IIL said it had recently ramped up its production capacity of FMD vaccine to 240 million doses annually to cater to the growing requirement of this vaccine for the FMDCP and the retail markets.