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Animal healthcare major Hester Biosciences Limited will start commercial rollout of vaccines from Tanzania facility in October.
Hester Biosciences, the first Indian company to manufacture animal vaccines in African region, looks to capitalise on the opportunity in the PPR (Peste des petits ruminants) vaccine. PPR — caused by a morbillivirus — is a highly contagious disease of wild and domestic small ruminants such as cattle, sheep, etc found across Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, West and South Asia, and China.
“We should be rolling out our first commercial vaccine from Tanzania plant in the month of October. This vaccine is for the PPR and will be sold in the African market,” Rajiv Gandhi, Managing Director, Hester Biosciences told BusinessLine .
Gandhi added that Hester is the world’s largest producer of PPR vaccines currently with supplies happening from its India and Nepal facilities. Tanzania plant cost is approximately $18 million (around ₹131 crore).
“The Tanzania plant will have the initial capacity of approximately 2-2.5 billion doses per annum.,” added Gandhi.
According to FAOSTAT, the global small ruminant count is currently around 2.1 billion, of which nearly 60 per cent is in Asia and about 34 per cent in Africa.
PPR has caused devastating socio-economic impact and put livelihoods, food security and nutrition of millions of small-scale farmers and pastoralists at risk. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) estimates annual global impact of PPR between $1.4 billion and $2.1 billion. It has set a goal PPR eradication by 2030 through interventions such as vaccination.
The Vaccine Standards and Pilot Approach to PPR Control in Africa (VSPA) in West Africa is one of the existing programmes that aim to support the livestock sector in Africa. VSPA is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In Hester Biosciences Africa Ltd, Hester has equity share capital of $4 million, while it has received secured loan and grants commitment worth $14 million from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, US.
Africa currently imports about 80 per cent of its animal vaccine requirements. A domestic production by Hester will prove beneficial for the region.
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