Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board, has joined the league of very few companies in the world to develop world’s first vaccine for chikungunya. IIL is also developing a live vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) for the first time in the country. Right now both the vaccines are undergoing pre-clinical toxicology studies.

K V Balasubramaniam, managing director, Indian Immunologicals informed, “Currently, no vaccine is available for chikungunya anywhere in the world. IIL is developing a vaccine for this disease using a virus strain isolated by a laboratory in the USA. For Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection, IIL is developing a better and safer vaccine by producing the virus in cell culture, instead of using mouse brain for growing the virus which the current vaccine manufacturers do. The inactivated JEV vaccine is thus a safer vaccine.”

Every year several outbreaks of these diseases occur in India, resulting in thousands of cases of hospitalisation and innumerable deaths. In 2006, there was a large outbreak in India. States affected by the outbreak were Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Delhi. In that year, over 74000 cases of Chikungunya were reported in the two states of Tamilnadu and Orissa alone.

Mortality is high for JEV infection. In 2011, the state of Uttar Pradesh reported over 4000 cases of JEV with 376 deaths. Patients who recover from these viral infections suffer for many years. Elderly and young children are at high risk.

“We are expecting to enter human trials in the next six to 12 months, and commercialisation within 24 to 36 months. Once approved, IIL intends to manufacture these products at the vaccines manufacturing facility that is being constructed in Karakapatla in the suburbs of Hyderabad,” said Dr Ramesh Mathur, general manager, R&D,  IIL.

With the mission of making biotechnology in healthcare affordable and accessible, IIL hopes to market these vaccines at highly affordable prices.

IIL is involved in research and development of conventional vaccines and new recombinant vaccines for infectious bacterial and viral diseases. The company has several vaccines at various stages of development in its pipeline. The other advanced stage candidates are pediatric Pentavalent vaccine - diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, and H. influenzae (DPTHepB+Hib), and oral salmonella –vectored human papilloma virus vaccine for preventing cervical cancer in women.