Vaccines for malaria and dengue may hit Indian market in 2-4 years

There are several candidates in the works – the Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, and Zydus Cadila are working on either developing or manufacturing anti-malarial vaccines

Vaccines for malaria and dengue, tropical mosquito-borne infections, could take two to four years to hit the Indian market, say industry insiders. At present, there are several candidates in the works with the Serum Institute of India (SII), Bharat Biotech, and Zydus Cadila all working on either developing or manufacturing anti-malarial vaccines. As for dengue, French firm Sanofi and Japan’s Takeda are looking to bring their vaccines here.

SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker, and Novavax are collaborating for phase-3 clinical trials of the Oxford University’s Jenner Institute’s malaria vaccine on over 4,800 children in four African countries. It has shown 77 per cent efficacy in trials on infants, the first vaccine to cross the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target of 75 per cent efficacy.

“Work has begun in the last few months on this,” said a source close to the development, without divulging details on India-specific plans. Industry insiders say regulators would require local trial data before allowing it. “Data on safety and immunogenicity, even if on a small cohort, would be sought by the regulator here even if they decide to base their decision of approval on global efficacy trial data,” said a senior official of a vaccine firm. This could extend the timelines for availability here…..