The Veterinary Biologicals and Research Institute (VBRI), Hyderabad has set up a cell culture rabies vaccine laboratory with an investment of Rs.1.5 crore in the city, early this week. The laboratory is to produce cost-effective rabies vaccines which will have long shelf life and no side effects.

Rabies vaccine, at present, is being produced from a nervous tissue of sheep brain. WHO has recommended cell culture vaccines and DNA vaccines as they are highly immunogenic without side effects. And it is also easy to dispense them.

VBRI has taken up the project in collaboration with the Netherlands Government. The lab can produce one lakh doses of rabies vaccines a year and has a provision to increase the capacity up to 20 lakh doses. Cell culture vaccines costs Rs. 10 per dose for both post-bite and prophylactic (before bite) treatment. With the help of this lab, VBRI officials are hoping to offer vaccines at half the price. Whereas the sheep brain vaccine comes at Rs. 40 in prophylactic cases, while for post bite it costs Rs. 210 for seven days.

The production of cell culture rabies vaccine is likely to start by 2005 at VBRI. Rabies is a deadly disease and a serious problem in rural areas in India. Nearly 3 million people are treated every year for dog bites both in government and private clinics. India accounts for 35,000 deaths (70 per cent of global incidences) every year due to rabies, mostly due to delayed vaccination and poor post-bite management.