Smear Campaign, Says Shantha Bio

Shantha Biotech (SB) a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm has complained to the Union ministry of science and technology (S&T) that SmithKline Beecham (SKB) is running a smear campaign against its hepatitis vaccine.

SB has an indigenously produced vaccine Shanvac-B in the domestic market directly competing against SKBs Energix-B, the world leader in vaccines. SBs project to develop the vaccine was funded by the ministry of S&T under its scheme to encourage technology with commercial potential.

Shanvac-B is in the market from August 1997 and is said to have notched up sales of 25,000 units. It is priced at a third of its closest competitors vaccine. We have received Shantha Biotechs letter today and are considering the line of action, said sources in the ministry of S&T yesterday, adding that they could not directly interfere except refer the matter to the appropriate ministries health and commerce.

 

Meanwhile, a news agency report said SB has threatened to take SKB to court for indulging in a smear campaign against its new vaccine. It said the company has accused SKB of intentionally launching a vilification campaign aimed at damaging the reputation of Shanvac-B, a product developed and produced in India by Indian scientists.

The letter received by the ministry of S&T accuses the multinational of circulating false information in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka that Shanvac-B was untested causing confusion among medical professionals.

The medical trade was being flooded with information from sales people of the multinational that Shanvac-B did not have as much clinical data to support its claim for immunity against hepatitis-B as some other tried-and-tested vaccines, the letter alleged.

Shanvac-B has gained rapid acceptance in markets in the south where it was launched first. SB is yet to release the vaccine all over the country where the demand for anti-hepatitis vaccines is said to 5 million doses a year.

A number of companies are in the race for manufacturing cheap hepatitis-B vaccines as the disease is assuming serious proportions. There are an estimated four million carriers of the virus in India.

While foreign drug companies are selling their vaccines around Rs 500 to Rs 600, two Indian companies Shantha Biotech and Panacea Biotech have vaccines priced below Rs 200.