Bharat Biotech makes a breakthrough in developing Zika vaccine

But they say it will take some time before testing the vaccine in animal and human trials and reaching a conclusion about its effectiveness. “Since this is a pandemic situation, we are hoping that the Indian government will move quickly of giving requisite approvals for the trials”, said Dr Ella.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR ) said that they would see the feasibility of taking it forward and that the vaccine could be a a good example of a “Make in India” product.

Zika virus disease is an emerging viral disease transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, which also transmits diseases like dengue and chikungunya.

Speaking exclusively to The Hindu, Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of the company said that one the two candidates is in advanced stage of development and can be ready soon.

The Hyderabad company reportedly imported the virus (officially) and developed two candidate vaccines.

The vaccines and bio-therapeutic manufacturer on Wednesday announced that it is working on ZIKAVAC vaccines for Zika infection. However, the trails on animals and humans haven’t begun yet. “The vaccine methods developed early on, before the devastating consequences of the epidemic in Brazil came to light provided us a push to accelerate vaccine development”, she added.

This comes in the backdrop of the World Health Organization (WHO) designating the virus and its suspected complications in newborns as a public health emergency of global concern.

The company maintain that pre-clinical studies will be concluded in the next five months, after which the process for regulatory approval will commence.

The multidimensional Innovation-oriented biotechnology company Bharat Biotech has supplied over 3 billion+ doses of vaccines to over 65 countries to tackle infectious and neglected diseases in both children and adults.

Sanofi Pasteur leads the vaccine field for viruses in the same family as Zika virus (ZIKV), with licensed vaccines against Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis and, most recently, Dengue.

NewLink is also developing an ebola vaccine with Merck that has proved to be highly effective against the deadly virus in a large trial in Guinea.