Shantha Biotechnics is developing a single dose Hepatitis B vaccine and its pre-clinical studies will begin soon, Varaprasad Reddy, managing director of the company said.

The company is also working on a pentavalent vaccine. It is working on typhoid conjugate and a cellular pertusis vaccine, besides developing serum free medicine/process of DPT in collaboration with national and international organizations. Shantha is developing cholera and typhoid vaccines in collaboration with International Vaccine Institute (IVI) of Korea and rotavirus vaccine in collaboration with NIH. The company also planning to develop JE vaccine, vaccine for varicella-zoster and heat stable vaccines.

Shantha today accounts for up to 40 per cent of the world’s requirement of Hepatitis B vaccine. The company, which has recently launched a tetravalent vaccine DTwP-H, is aiming to become one of the world’s top 20 biotech companies by 2010, Varaprasad Reddy said.

The company has signed agreements with the Technology Development Board (TDB) for funding support to develop Haemophilias Influenza-B (Hib) vaccine. Global vaccine market is estimated to touch about $ 10 billion by 2006. Vaccine market grew by 19.4 per cent during 2003-04.The company which started its operations about 12 years ago with a small team has now established a 600 member strong work force.