Panacea Bio buys rights for new anthrax vaccine

Our Corporate/ Economic Bureaus

New Delhi, Nov 5: The world’s second anthrax vaccine developed by a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scientist has been lapped up by Panacea Biotech, which has bagged its exclusive global marketing rights from Indian government.

The Delhi-based Panacea Biotech has bought the worldwide rights for production and marketing of the non-toxic anthrax vaccine developed by JNU’s biotech chief, Rakesh Bhatnagar.

The vaccine is expected to be commercialised over the next six to eight months once the necessary trials and registration are completed.

The company has entered into a ten-year agreement with Biotechnology Consortium of India (BCI), a government of India undertaking engaged in commercialising technologies developed by government laboratories.

“The recombinant vaccine has already gone through basic toxic trials and will undergo the human clinical trials soon. The vaccine is expected to be commercialised after 6-8 months and will need to first undergo clinical trials and necessary registrations,” Rajesh Jain, director marketing of Panacea Biotech, told The Financial Express.
Since the vaccine falls under the category of life saving or emergency drugs, the registration will be undertaken under the fast track registration scheme of the government of India and will be completed much faster.

Panacea, with its USFDA-approved plant, hopes to encash on the huge demand for the vaccine in the wake of the recent biochemical threat in the US. For that, the company will approach the US government seeking necessary registration after it is launched in the domestic market, Mr Jain said.

The company has already paid the milestone payment for the technology transfer to the government and will be paying royalty payment on sales.

The vaccine now developed is a recombinant one and does not contain endothelial factors and lethal factors thus providing the vaccine much higher safety and efficiency levels, Mr Jain said.
The development of the vaccine was announced by the Union minister for science and technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, in capital on Monday.

The vaccine is based on the technology developed by Prof Bhatnagar in collaboration with Dr Yogender Singh and his associates of the Centre for Biochemical Technology.

Development of this indigenous recombinant anthrax vaccine was supported by the department of biotechnology with an investment of Rs 86.5 lakh for a period of six years.

Dr Joshi said that the anthrax vaccine currently available in US and UK is made by culture supernatants of Bacillus anthracis. The main ingredient of this vaccine is protective antigen which causes side effects and is highly toxic due to traces of lethal factor and edema factor using polymerase chain reaction, he added.