India’s Bharat Biotech is developing chikungunya vaccine: Report

Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech has successfully developed a vaccine against chikungunya virus, the company claimed in a recent report.

Bharat Biotech currently has the manufacturing capacity for making upto 100 million doses of hepatitis B vaccine (which it claims the largest in the world and 50 million doses  of typhoid vaccine and 8 million doses of rabies vaccine.

Currently, there is no vaccine or treatment available for chikungunya virus infection.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is also working on an experimental vaccine against chikungunya virus.

The chikungunya vaccine candidate, which is being developed using non-infectious virus-like particles (VLP), has protected monkeys and mice against chikungunya virus, recent reports said

Maryland, US-based vaccine maker Novavax, which has recently formed a joint venture with India’s Cadila Pharmaceuticals to develop vaccines against chikungunya and dengue fever, is another potential player in the field.

Scientists in NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC) identified the proteins that give rise to chikungunya VLPs, to develop the chikungunya vaccine.

The VLPs mimic actual virus particles but cannot cause infection, so  they can be used safely as a vaccine to elicit immune responses.

NIAIDs study marks the first time that scientists have used VLPs in a vaccine to protect against chikungunya virus, which is in the genus Alphavirus.

The group plans to determine whether VLPs will work against other alphaviruses, such as Western and Eastern equine encephalitis virus found in the United States and o’nyong-nyong virus found in Africa.

Researchers now plans to seek approval for clinical trials to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of the chikungunya vaccine in humans.

Chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen, has infected millions of people in Africa and Asia and causes debilitating pain, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found.

Chikungunya virus (CHIK) is a member of the Alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae. The alphaviruses consist of 30 species of arthropod-borne viruses, which are further subgrouped into seven serocomplexes based on serological data.

CHIK was first isolated from the serum of a febrile patient during a dengue epidemic that occurred in the Newala district, Tanzania, in 1953.

Chikungunya returned in 2004 and 2005 and has since spread to nearly 20 countries to infect millions.

Chikungunya infection is often not fatal but it causes debilitating pain and exhaustion and can have long-term or even permanent effects.

Increases in global travel and trade, and possibly climate change, may be contributing to the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes into new areas, stated NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

In 2005 chikungunya virus struck Bangalore and infected several hundreds of patients across India.

Bharat Biotech is planning to conduct clinical trials of seven of its products. The company would invest about Rs 250 crore for the clinical development of these products which include some drugs and vaccines that are at an advanced stage of development.

“The therapeutics being developed include a cardiovascular product and a product for treating diabetic foot ulcer. We have also developed vaccines for chikungunya, malaria, typhoid conjugate, rotavirus and Staph vaccines,” Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Krishna Ella was quoted as saying in a recent news report.

Bharat Biotech’s typhoid vaccine will be the most advanced vaccine product, he added.

Bharat bio is currently conducting clinical studies on its H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

Most of the products would be launched in various markets in the next 2-3 years.

The company is planning to set up a manufacturing facility with an outlay of Rs 75 crore, to produce these drugs and vaccines once they came out commercialization stage after successful completion of clinical studies.

Bharat Biotech International Limited, Hyderabad, India, s one of the largest manufacturer of anti-rabies vaccines in India. Indirab is a market leader in India and several countries globally.

Bharat Biotech is one of the first bio-pharma facilities in India to be audited and approved by Korean Food & Drugs Administration (KFDA).

Bharat Biotech is also a WHO prequalified manufacturer of Hepatitis-B vaccines for supply to UNICEF and global procurement agencies.