Bharat Biotech launches typhoid conjugate vaccine

Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad-based vaccine and biotherapeutics company, will in two weeks from now hit the Indian market with what it claims is the world's first "clinically proven typhoid conjugate vaccine".

A conjugate vaccine is typically one which provides coverage for a longer period - at least for about five years.

There are typhoid vaccines in the market, including one manufactured by Bharat Biotech itself, but they provide immunity from the disease for three years. These are called polysaccharide vaccines.

While Bharat Biotech claims this vaccine is the only one that is clinically proven and unique, this may not be the only conjugate vaccine. Bio-Med also has a conjugate vaccine for typhoid.

Launching the new vaccine in Hyderabad on August 26, Bharat Biotech Chairman and Managing Director Krishna M. Ella said it could be used across age groups, "starting from six months old infants to older children and adults."

He said that the price was still being worked out. Bharat Biotech invested Rs 65 crore on the project.

Bharat Biotech, with revenues of Rs 300 crore, expects the new vaccine to take the company's total revenues from the typhoid segment to around Rs 100 crore from around Rs 40 crore.

The 14-year-old company also makes Hepatitis B and polio vaccines, among others. In May, it also announced plans to launch a rotavirus vaccine developed in association with the Department of Biotechnology and four US organisations: National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the non-governmental organisation PATH.