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Ms Amrita Patel, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board, and Mr Deepak Tikku, Managing Director, addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Friday. - - A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Sept. 19

INDIAN Immunologicals Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, in association with the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science, expects to come up with a DNA-based anti-Rabies vaccine in a year's time.

The Deoxyribonucleacacid vaccine, which is undergoing clinical trials at present, would be much cheaper than the existing anti-rabies vaccines in the market and also not require any cold chain to preserve it. The vaccine is being first developed for treatment of animals. If proved successful, vaccines for the treatment of humans will be introduced subsequently, Indian Immunologicals' scientists said.

The company is establishing a human vaccine plant and research and development centre here, which will be inaugurated by the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on October 3. While the human vaccine plant involved an investment of Rs 42 crore, the R&D centre is being set up at a cost of Rs 8 crore, the NDDB Chairperson, Dr Amrita Patel, told newspersons here on Friday.

Dr Patel said that the vaccine plant was designed to manufacture various human vaccines such as recombinant hepatitis B, hepatitis A, measles, diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. The plant would also produce new combination vaccines in future. It has a capacity to produce 200 million doses of each vaccine per annum. The main objective of the R&D centre was to develop various animal and human vaccines and biologicals.

She said that Indian Immunologicals was established in 1983 to manufacture Foot & Mouth disease (FMD) vaccines with technical know-how from The Wellcome Foundation of UK. Subsequently, the company had developed and introduced several veterinary biologicals through its own R&D efforts. Today, the company was the market leader in the veterinary biologicals in the country and was all set to play an important role in the control of FMD for which the Government had allocated Rs 200 crore in the Tenth Five Year Plan.

"Though it was not the NDDB job to produce human vaccines", Dr Patel said that Indian Immunologicals had forayed into this arena for the benefit of the people. It was producing human vaccines so as to make them available at affordable prices. These human vaccines would first meet the country's needs before catering to the needs of the rest of the world.

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NDDB arm to develop rabies vaccine — To set up plant, R&D centre

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