Indian firm files patent for Zika vaccine candidates

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has filed for global patent of two vaccine candidates - a recombination vaccine and an inactivated vaccine - for Zika virus.

The company announced that it could make available the inactivated vaccine in two years if the Indian Government fast-tracked the regulatory approvals once the pre-clinical trials proved to be successful.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of the company, said that Bharat Biotech was probably the first in the world to file for global patent for the two promising Zikavac vaccine candidates.

While the recombination vaccine might take time, the pre-clinical testing of the inactivated vaccine in animals would be completed in five months.

He said that the company had invested over $ 150 million since its inception to build its portfolio of vaccines, which included Rotovac (rotavirus vaccine) and Typbar TCV, typhoid conjugate vaccine. He said that a patent was also filed for Chikungunya vaccine, which would be entering Phase-1 trials shortly.

Bharat Biotech Director R & D Sumathy said that work on Zika vaccine project was started in 2014 and the patent was filed in July 2015. She said that Zika fever was an unmet healthcare need in India and other countries and the potential for Zika virus epidemic was high.

Mr. Krishna Ella said the normal process for a vaccine to get commercialized would take seven years, including the clinical trials.

However, he said that the Zikavac vaccine could be made available if the Indian Government declares national emergency and moves aggressively in regulatory approvals. He said that women would be the prime target group for the vaccine, followed by adults of both the genders since the virus causes Guillain-Barre syndrome in them.

A Bharat Biotech press release said that the WHO just announced a disease linked to the Zika virus in Latin America poses a global public health emergency requiring a united response.

Zika is now present in 23 countries. Brazil, the hardest-hit country, has reported around 3,500 cases of the devastating birth defect called microcephaly. The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, which can breed in a pool of water as small as a bottle cap and usually bite during the day.