Bharat Biotech, Novavax to develop avian flu vaccine

HYDERABAD: The Nasdaq-listed Novavax Inc and Bharat Biotech have announced a strategic alliance to pursue rapid development of pandemic influenza vaccine to protect humans against avian influenza or bird flu.  

Currently, there is no commercially available human vaccine for avian influenza type H5N1 while fears of its pandemic spread are rampant across the world.
Bharat Biotech will invest close to $30 million on pre-clinical and clinical development work over the next 12 months, company officials said. 

Bharat Biotech is looking to produce about 25 million doses of vaccine, which it expects to market in the South Asian countries and ASEAN, the company said.

As part of the agreement, Novavax will transfer its proprietary virus like particle (VLP), technology for developing a single dose of  avian influenza vaccine to Bharat Biotech. The uniqueness of this technology is that while traditionally live viruses are used to make avian flu vaccines, the VLP technology uses recombinant proteins to mimic the structure of H5N1, fooling the human body to think it has been infected and produce antibodies to combat the virus.

Dr Rahul Singhvi, president and CEO, Novavax, said, “Other than the technology transfer, the American company has also given Bharat Biotech marketing rights in ASEAN countries and South Asia. In return, Novavax will receive a royalty on sales, apart from unrestricted access to all data.”

The company is looking at similar arrangements with governments and private sector companies in other regions as well, Singhvi said.

The advantage of the VLP technology is that it is not based on a live virus strain and does not pose the danger of spreading unlike in traditional technologies. This apart the unavailability of the pandemic virus strain, currently, as also the fact that it mutates rapidly, makes it difficult to stockpile the vaccine even if it was developed.

Avian flu is just the beginning and the problem is going to be global, Dr Krishna M Ella, chairman and managing director, Bharat Biotech, said introducing the technology.

The alliance will be overseen by a steering committee chaired by Dr Richard Llausner, scientist and former executive director of Bill and Melinda Gat4s Foundation. He is now a special advisor to the government and Novavax Inc.

“There is no one who has looked at the history of the bird flu virus and is not convinced that there is a potential for a pandemic,” Dr Klausner said.

The World Bank has estimated that a pandemic attack of the virus would cost a whopping $1 trillion in economic loss to the global economy, he added. But one good thing of the outbreak of the H5N1 is that the world has woken up to the fact that it needs to be prepared.