Bharat Biotech has received the National Technology Award for 2018 from the Technology Development Board, Government of India. This award on innovative technologies, successfully developed and commercialised from India was bestowed on Rotavac, by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind. The Technology Day ceremony was held today at the Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Union minister for science and technology, earth sciences, environment, forests and climate change Dr. Harsha Vardhan, and Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Chairperson, Technology Development Board and Secretary, Department of Science and Technology were also present at the event.
 
Rotovac was launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the Universal Immunisation Programme in India in 2016, with initial implementation in 9 states.

Till date, the company has supplied 35 million doses to the UIP. It has also initiated supply of WHO Pre-qualified the vaccine to UNICEF and other immunisation programmes worldwide.

“We are proud to receive the National Technology Award 2018 for Rotavac. It proves that researchers and product developers from India are capable to develop and commercialise innovative technologies for the world,” stated Dr. Krishna M Ella, chairman and managing director, Bharat Biotech

The national award from the Technology Development Board award recognises organisations  who have forged powerful partnerships with the national laboratories and to create knowledge networks with academic institutions to promote research and development and to gain entry into global markets. The nominees for the award and winners were selected on the basis of their extraordinary knowledge in and contributions to scientific innovation.

The Hyderabad-based company’s supply chain innovation includes the introduction of a miniaturized cold chain footprint for Rotavac to 1/5 of its competitors. With product and administration profiles similar to that of OPV, and a cold chain footprint of 3.2 cm 3 /dose of 0.5 mL, the vaccine is ideally suited for the immunisation programs worldwide. Rotavac is under registration in over 30 countries.

The vaccine has intellectual property with patents filed in more than 35 countries and granted in 10 countries including India, USA, China, EU, Japan, UK etc. It currently 60 patents and has delivered more than 3 billion doses of vaccines to over 65 countries.

Suchitra Ella, the joint managing director, Bharat Biotech said that this inspires our team to continue our efforts in vaccines innovation and product development for India and beyond.  Rotavac was developed as a result of a multi country - multi partner collaborative model of team science for over 2 decades. This large public private social innovation partnership included the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the Translational Health Sciences and Technology Institute (THSTI), the Society for Applied Studies (SAS), Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore, King Edwards Memorial Hospital (KEM) Pune, Stanford University School of Medicine, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Johns Hopkins University and PATH. The partnership has resulted in over 15 international publications, including the pivotal phase III publication in Lancet in 2014.