Acambis, Bharat Biotech form agreement to produce Japanese encephalitis vaccine

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Nov. 8 - Acambis plc said it has established a manufacturing and marketing agreement with Bharat Biotech International Ltd. of India to produce Acambis' ChimeriVax-JE investigational vaccine against Japanese encephalitis.

Bharat Biotech will be responsible for end-stage fill/finish processing of ChimeriVax-JE at its facilities in India and, once ChimeriVax-JE is approved, will market and distribute the vaccine in India and neighboring countries, the companies said.

Bulk vaccine will continue to be manufactured at Acambis' facility, where material for phase-3 testing has already been produced following successful phase-2 clinical testing.

Japanese encephalitis, a virus transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, is the leading cause of childhood encephalitis and viral encephalitis in Asia, where 25% to 30% of cases are fatal.

In the absence of a safe, single-dose vaccine, both the World Health Organization's Initiative for Vaccine Research and the Gates Foundation have identified a need for development of a second-generation, affordable Japanese encephalitis vaccine that has an acceptable safety profile and requires fewer doses than currently available vaccines.

Hyderbad-based Bharat Biotech is one of India's leading biotechnology companies.

Acambis develops vaccines and is based in Cambridge, England and Cambridge, Mass.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.