THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Annually, the rainy season in Kerala brings with it a host of ailments caused by deadly viruses, creating a huge burden on the state’s already strained healthcare system as well as the public exchequer.
Now, the National Biopharma Mission (NBM) has some good news for the state that often runs out of ideas to tackle the heavy downpours and the accompanying phenomenon of the outbreak of vector-borne diseases.
The NBM, an industry-academia collaborative mission for accelerating biopharmaceutical development in the country, is currently supporting the development of indigenous vaccines for dengue and chikungunya that have emerged as two of Kerala’s major health challenges of late.
They are expected to considerably mitigate the spread of tropical diseases and reduce the challenges before the state’s public health system, said NBM’s Mission Director Dr Raj K Shirumalla. He was speaking at the recently concluded Bioconnect 2.0 event here.
“Development of both the vaccines is progressing well. The dengue vaccine is entering phase-II clinical trials while the chikungunya vaccine is moving into phase-III. We hope that they can be made available in another two years,” he said.
The mission is supporting their development to make them accessible and affordable to the people.
“These are seasonal diseases and hence the market size of vaccines may be limited. Understanding the situation, the mission is funding their development. We are sure that the vaccines would reduce the burden on the health infrastructure, especially in states like Kerala. So far, the development of 12 vaccine candidates has been supported under the Mission. They include the Corbevax and ZyCoV D against Covid-19,” he said.
The big projects supported by the Mission in the medical device sector include the development of an indigenous MRI machine and an endoscope. India’s first indigenously developed MRI machine from Voxelgrids Innovations Pvt Ltd was launched last year. It is expected to reduce the cost of scanning by 40 per cent.
The innovation is a big leap for Aatmanirbhar Bharat as it reduces our dependence on the international market. Low capital costs will make the scanning accessible to more people, he said.
The NBM also funds the development of a mobile MRI device. The technology has been developed and the device’s stability is being checked. The machine is expected to be commercially available by next year.
This also holds tremendous potential in giving MRI access to more people, especially those in rural and remote areas.
Lirafit, a novel and cost-effective biosimilar of Liraglutide, was developed with Mission’s support. It is the first biosimilar of the widely used anti-diabetic medication Liraglutide. It reduced the daily cost of therapy by approximately 70 per cent. and hence became more accessible to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The NBM is currently supporting the development of eight biosimilars. A notable one is Aflibercept for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, he said.
