Rely on innovation, growth follows
Dr Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech
Our focus is to expand and further our vision to develop new vaccines to combat infectious diseases that affect emerging markets. For Bharat Biotech the biggest aspiration for year 2014 is Rotavac roll out. We had a successful 2013 when we added two more important socially relevant public health driven vaccines Typbar TCV Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine and Jenvac (inactivated Japanese encephalitis vaccine) in our product portfolio. We also announced successful completion of Rotavac phase III clinical trials.
The future seven billion populace of the emerging markets continue to offer the biggest growth opportunities with rising incidence of infectious diseases and growing public health problems that seek preventive public healthcare solutions. Going forward, we would also like to expand our collaborations with academic research groups and global health agencies to bolster early drug discovery efforts, speed up basic science and translational research. Essentially we like to excel in all: innovation, product development, regulatory submissions, regulatory approvals, commercial launches.
Immunisation against childhood diseases is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions for prevention of child illness and death. We hope the Government expands the list of vaccines under the national immunisation programme in 2014 and help reduce the nation’s disease burden. Vaccines are an integral part of development of nations, since their ROI is similar to that of investments made into primary education. As a new vaccine development and manufacturing company our goal is to support the government national immunisation initiatives in a manner that can lead to a healthy country and a healthy industry.
Bharat Biotech is also enhancing and consistently upgrading its quality management systems in compliance with global health agencies and international markets, to ensure a consistent supply of affordable quality vaccines. Our investments in R&D and in manufacturing facilities will also remain consistent with our growth plans.
We believe vaccines produced in the region have the potential for global use because of their affordable cost (and assured quality). This potential will provide for regional vaccine security. With this perspective in view, there are challenges that must be overcome for the region to realise its full potential in achieving self-reliance in the production of affordable vaccines of assured quality which can happen with wider public private partnerships.
A classic example of PPP has been for the rotavirus and Jenvac Vaccine Development programmes where Bharat Biotech and governmental agencies collaborated right from identification of strain, the early research programmes, clinical trials, eventually leading to successful clinical trial successes.
Our R&D pipeline continues to be strong with seven vaccine and three therapeutics product development programmes that are under various stages of development. We are presently carrying out research on bio-antibiotics, combination probiotics, lysostaphin, THR-100 (Recombinant staphylokinase Injection), chikungunya vaccine, oral rotavirus vaccine, malaria vaccine, and Staphylococcus aureus vaccine.
In order to foster academic excellence, Bharat Biotech is supporting a M.Tech and PhD. programme for its employees. Several employees have benefited from the academic tie-up with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad for their M.Tech and PhD. degrees. Similar tie-ups are being worked out with other universities. Our effort is to maintain and enhance the momentum of progress achieved over the previous decade to make lifesaving vaccines available to the world’s children, in partnership with Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance) and realising our pledge of a $1 vaccine for the world.