Monoclonal antibodies for Nipah treatment to be developed indigenously: Kerala Health Minister

The minister said the monoclonal antibodies were presently being imported from Australia where they are made according to the Nipah variant present there

The monoclonal antibodies which are the only treatment against Nipah infection will be developed indigenously to combat the deadly virus, Kerala Health Minister Veena George said on Wednesday. George revealed that a decision had been taken by two national and a Kerala government institute to develop monoclonal antibodies.

The Kerala government’s Institute of Advanced Virology, the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) and the National Institute of Virology in Pune would be involved in the effort, she said.

The minister said it was being considered to develop the antibodies using the cells of patients who recovered from the virus which infected six persons, of whom two died, in Kozhikode district of the state last month.

The minister said the monoclonal antibodies were presently being imported from Australia where they are made according to the Nipah variant present there.

“We need to manufacture it indigenously for the variant seen here,” she said.

The virus strain seen in Kerala was the Bangladesh variant, which has a high mortality rate of around 70-90 per cent.