Friday, October 19, 2007
Injectible Polio vaccine
Businessworld
Gauri Kamath
Two events exemplify the often frustrating battle that India wages against poliomyelitis, a disease that mostly attacks children causing muscular paralysis, and sometimes even death. On 27 September, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan congratulated Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on India’s polio eradication efforts stating that it would soon achieve its objective. Then, on 3 October, a Mumbai daily reported the second case of polio this year in Maharashtra, which was till recently polio-free.
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It is against this backdrop that France’s Sanofi pasteur, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has been attempting to market a new injectible polio vaccine. “But the
response is not as good as it should have been,” says Homayoun Madjrouh, the Delhi-based managing director of Sanofi Pasteur India.
Since its launch in November 2006, the company has sold 100,000 doses of the vaccine. The potential, he says, is four times as much. One national immunisation drive involves the administration of 225 million oral doses, part of a course of many such drives in a year.
Sanofi says the injectible is a complement to the oral vaccine. The two together will boost immunity better than the oral drops alone, it says. But not many are listening.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, which saw a resurgence of polio in 2006, recently dropped plans of using the injectible in its immunisation drive. “The injectible faces the same challenges as any new vaccine that isn’t on the government’s immunisation programme,” says Nitin Shah, a Mumbai-based pediatrician and former president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends a mixed schedule of oral and injectible.
At Rs 350 a dose, it is not cheap. A course of four injections including one booster have to be given before the age of five. Madjrouh says it is not price, but awareness
that is the problem. “Even upper middle class parents don’t ask for it.”
For now, Sanofi’s vaccine is unlikely to be on the government’s agenda. In 2007-08, roughly Rs 1,300 crore will be spent on polio eradication. Though the exact price could not be ascertained, the oral vaccine — given free to children — would cost the government much less than Rs 5 a dose. But buying the injectible would require a larger budget.
Experts in the polio eradication campaign think the oral vaccine is doing its job. Since January, India has reported only 255 cases of polio, down from 676 cases in 2006 thanks to a stepped-up vaccination drive targeted specifically at one type of the polio virus responsible for most new cases. Sanofi also makes the oral vaccine used in those drives.
“The injectible is unnecessary at this stage,” says an official in Delhi who is part of the Pulse Polio vaccination campaign but requested anonymity, adding that the oral
vaccine is the only solution for mass immunisation. Since the vaccine virus is present in the stools of immunised persons, even those who come in contact with them stand a chance of getting immunity.
The injectible goes directly into the blood stream providing individual protection and is suitable for countries that have eradicated polio, the official says. Further, unless India improves the supply of clean drinking water and safe toilets, besides educating citizens on personal hygiene, vaccines can only achieve so much.
There is still hope for the injectible. New Delhi’s Panacea Biotec has tied up with the Netherlands Vaccine Institute (NVI) for launching its own by end-2007 or early 2008. Sanofi pasteur, too, stays committed, says Madjrouh.
Gauri Kamath
Two events exemplify the often frustrating battle that India wages against poliomyelitis, a disease that mostly attacks children causing muscular paralysis, and sometimes even death. On 27 September, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan congratulated Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on India’s polio eradication efforts stating that it would soon achieve its objective. Then, on 3 October, a Mumbai daily reported the second case of polio this year in Maharashtra, which was till recently polio-free.
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
It is against this backdrop that France’s Sanofi pasteur, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has been attempting to market a new injectible polio vaccine. “But the
response is not as good as it should have been,” says Homayoun Madjrouh, the Delhi-based managing director of Sanofi Pasteur India.
Since its launch in November 2006, the company has sold 100,000 doses of the vaccine. The potential, he says, is four times as much. One national immunisation drive involves the administration of 225 million oral doses, part of a course of many such drives in a year.
Sanofi says the injectible is a complement to the oral vaccine. The two together will boost immunity better than the oral drops alone, it says. But not many are listening.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, which saw a resurgence of polio in 2006, recently dropped plans of using the injectible in its immunisation drive. “The injectible faces the same challenges as any new vaccine that isn’t on the government’s immunisation programme,” says Nitin Shah, a Mumbai-based pediatrician and former president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends a mixed schedule of oral and injectible.
At Rs 350 a dose, it is not cheap. A course of four injections including one booster have to be given before the age of five. Madjrouh says it is not price, but awareness
that is the problem. “Even upper middle class parents don’t ask for it.”
For now, Sanofi’s vaccine is unlikely to be on the government’s agenda. In 2007-08, roughly Rs 1,300 crore will be spent on polio eradication. Though the exact price could not be ascertained, the oral vaccine — given free to children — would cost the government much less than Rs 5 a dose. But buying the injectible would require a larger budget.
Experts in the polio eradication campaign think the oral vaccine is doing its job. Since January, India has reported only 255 cases of polio, down from 676 cases in 2006 thanks to a stepped-up vaccination drive targeted specifically at one type of the polio virus responsible for most new cases. Sanofi also makes the oral vaccine used in those drives.
“The injectible is unnecessary at this stage,” says an official in Delhi who is part of the Pulse Polio vaccination campaign but requested anonymity, adding that the oral
vaccine is the only solution for mass immunisation. Since the vaccine virus is present in the stools of immunised persons, even those who come in contact with them stand a chance of getting immunity.
The injectible goes directly into the blood stream providing individual protection and is suitable for countries that have eradicated polio, the official says. Further, unless India improves the supply of clean drinking water and safe toilets, besides educating citizens on personal hygiene, vaccines can only achieve so much.
There is still hope for the injectible. New Delhi’s Panacea Biotec has tied up with the Netherlands Vaccine Institute (NVI) for launching its own by end-2007 or early 2008. Sanofi pasteur, too, stays committed, says Madjrouh.
