The Hindu Business Line : Bharat Bio launches new anti-rabies vaccine

Bharat Bio-tech International Ltd (BBIL) has announced the launch of a new anti-rabies vaccine, with its brand name `Rabirix', in the Indian market. It can be used for both prophylactic (vaccine before bite) or therapeutic (post bite) treatment.

The Hyderabad-based company has obtained the rabies strain from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta. Rabirix will be manufactured in the BBIL's internationally approved facilities near Hyderabad.

Announcing the launch at a function, Dr Krishna M. Ella, Chairman & Managing Director of BBIL, said the price would be 30 to 40 per cent lower than the competitors and would be different for the private market and the Government. He, however, declined to give the prices.

In the domestic market, two anti-rabies vaccines are available — Vero Rab of Sanofi Aventis, marketed by Ranbaxy and RabiPur, marketed by Sanofi. Each of these products is estimated to have a market sale of Rs 150 crore per annum.

Dr Julie Louise Gerberding, Director of CDC, who explained the global scenario of rabies, said the new vaccine has been found to be as effective as the existing human diploid cell rabies vaccine (HDCV), which was introduced in 1967 and considered the gold standard for rabies vaccines.

The key issues for HDCV have been its limited production capacities and high costs. BBIL's Rabirix is a purified vero cell vaccine, which in clinical trials has proved to be almost similar in efficacy with HDCV, while being significantly economical.

Rabies remains an incurable disease. There are no diagnostic tests to detect it early. About four million people are exposed to the virus, which is carried by dogs, worldwide and about 60,000 fall victim to it.

In India, an estimated three million people undergo anti-rabies treatment and 30,000 deaths are reported annually. According to the World Health Organisation, between 35,000 to 50,000 human rabies cases worldwide, and approximately 30,000 from India alone.

There is a severe shortage of rabies vaccine in the country and hence the availability of the indigenously developed and manufactured vaccine would be a timely intervention to check the problem, said Dr T.S. Rao, Advisor of Department of Biotechnology, which supported the project.

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