Zydus Vaccicare, a division of Cadila Healthcare Ltd and part of the Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila, has launched Vaxirab in Karnataka and Hyderabad.

S Nagaraj, sales and marketing Zydus Vaccicare said that the entrance of the vaccine is to meet the shortfall of rabies vaccines demand, which is pegged at 14 million doses. "India requires 30 million doses of rabies vaccine today and there are 18 million doses available so far," he informed.

The new vaccine offers quicker action and faster protection making it ideal for dog bite cases where incubation period is lesser. It is also easy to administer and has a minimal risk of contamination as it is packaged with a pre fill syringe imported from United Kingdom containing 1 ml diluent and a vial of lyophilised vaccine for a single dose. Moreover the vaccine has two important antigens - Glyco Protein and nuclear protein. The biggest advantage for dog bite victims are that Vaxirab is a five dose regime and replaces the WHO banned 14 injections of the nerve tissue vaccine used in the government hospitals.

The new highly purified duck embryo rabies vaccine, which is a new generation rabies vaccine, approved by World Health Organisation (WHO) and is manufactured under technical collaboration with Berna Biotech located at Berne in Switzerland who are the pioneers of the vaccine and also one of the leading manufacturers in the world. The international brand 'Lyssavac N Berna' was first registered in Switzerland in 1985 and is currently available in 30 countries worldwide.

Annually around 75,000 deaths are caused by rabies vaccine where 35,000 deaths are reported alone from India. According the WHO, there are three million cases of dog bites reported in India and the same number unreported, so the incidence of dogs bites here is six million cases, annually, informed Nagraj. There are 20 million dogs in India. The main causes of rabies deaths in India are dog bites (80 - 85 per cent) monkey and cat bites account of the rest.

Vaxirab clinical trials conducted at Haffkine's Institute at Mumbai reported high levels of antibodies with those with animal bites and proved to have no side effects, pointed out Nagraj.

The total market for rabies vaccine is valued at Rs. 160 crore and the company has devised strategies to bag a share of 10 percent in the first year, which amounts to Rs. 1,600 crore.

Within the next one year the company is planning to set-up a duck farm at Ahmedabad where specific pathogen free ducks will be reared. The current production capacity for production of Vaxirab is one to two lakh doses and with the duck farm in place, the company is hopeful to achieve a target of five lakh vaccines a month.

Presently, the ducks are reared at Cherry Valley farms in UK where 10, 000 ducks arrive at the company every week for the production of the vaccine. Around 40,000 eggs are used in a month for the production of the vaccine. With one duck egg, two vaccines can be produced, said Nagaraj. The current investment of Zydus Vaccicare, the division which was incepted in April last year is Rs. 22 crore and parent company's annual turnover is Rs. 1000 crore.

Nagaraj said Zydus would be launching at least three more vaccines against chicken-pox, hepatitis-A and MMR, over the next one year, in association with Berna Biotech. The chicken-pox vaccine would be launched in January, while the Hepatitis-A vaccine is expected to be launched in May next year and the MMR vaccine later. The vaccines would be imported from Berna Biotech, which had transferred the technology to make VaxiRab.