WHO Pre-Qualifies Bharat Biotech’s Typhoid Vaccine for Young Children
There are currently no vaccines available against typhoid that are meant for children younger than 2, but a new conjugate vaccine manufactured by India’s Bharat Biotech as Typbar-TCV could change that.
The Hyderabad-based biotech has now announced that its typhoid vaccine has received pre-qualification from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
International Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that in 2016, there were approximately 12 million cases of typhoid fever resulting in around 130,000 deaths.
“Typbar TCV is the first typhoid vaccine, clinically proven to be administered to children from six months of age to adults and confers long-term protection against typhoid fever,” Said a company release.
“This [prequalification] enables the procurement and supplies of the vaccine to UNICEF, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and GAVI supported countries,” Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech, has said.
The product has been under development since 2001. With 5 years of follow up data for seroconversion, Typbar TCV at 25µg / dose has proven long term protection for children and adults alike, and can be administered to children from 6 months of age. Typbar TCV has been evaluated in human challenge studies at
Oxford University and typhoid conjugate vaccines have been recommended by WHO’s strategic advisory group of experts on immunisation (WHO-SAGE).“When we started this project, Typhoid fever was a neglected tropical disease. This success is a true reflection of our team’s ability to develop novel vaccines and sustain long term product development for fighting infectious diseases. It demonstrates the power of global partnerships to achieve novel breakthroughs”, stated Dr. Ella, “For Typbar TCV to reach vulnerable populations, we are pleased to announce the price of $ 1.50/ dose for procurement for GAVI supported countries. Recognizing the importance of sustained vaccine procurement for low income, we announce a further price reduction to around $ 1.0 or below / dose, post procurement of 100 million doses.”
“The WHO pre-qualification of Typbar TCV marks an important milestone in the global effort to rid the world of typhoid fever and improve health for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world,” commented Oxford University professor Andrew Pollard.
