Biological E launches Japanese encephalitis vaccine

Hyderabad-based vaccine company Biological E. Ltd on Thursday launched the county's first indigenous vaccine, JEEV, to prevent Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne viral disease that affects the brain.

Priced at Rs 985, the vaccine will be available in about two weeks' time and will fill a huge unmet medical need. "At the moment, there is no strong anti-viral therapy for this (Japanese encephalitis) except for a vaccine that the government imports from China," Mahima Datla, Senior Vice President, Biological E, said at the vaccine's launch in Hyderabad. "But the vaccine from China is typically made available in cases of major outbreaks and its supply is limited."

A person is required to take two doses of JEEV - the dosage is 0.5 ml each time for an adult and 0.25 ml in case of a child. JEEV has minimal side-effects and has a better safety profile than the vaccine India imports from China, Datla said. According to her, India recorded more than 8,000 confirmed cases of Japanese encephalitis in India in 2011 with 1,100 deaths.

Datla said that the vaccine will be made in Hyderabad and that the technology has been obtained from Austrian vaccine maker Intercell. The Austrian company, she said, markets the vaccine under the brand name Ixiaro and targets travellers from Europe, Australia and the US to regions where Japanese encephalitis is prevalent.

Datla said Biological E has built an initial capacity to produce 10 million doses a year of JEEV and hopes to sell a few million doses in the first couple of years. Based on demand, the company could scale up its capacity further and also target the export market.

The company has invested about Rs 400 crore in the last four years to set up a vaccine production facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The facility will produce vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis B, as well as JEEV and the pentavalent vaccines. Biological E is a major supplier of vaccines to government programmes. It has supplied 200 million doses of various vaccines over the past couple of years and has now started exports, including through the UNICEF.