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ICMR inks pact with International Vaccine Institute to spur vaccine development in India
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Our Bureau, Bengaluru
August 24 , 2017
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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the ministry of
health and family welfare (MoHFW), signed a tripartite Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI),
South Korea to collaborate on vaccine research and development. The MoU
will also strengthen the relationship between IVI and India.
The
MoU was signed between Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of ICMR
& Secretary, Department of Health Research; Manoj Jhalani,
Additional Secretary & Managing Director, National Health Mission
and Dr. Jerome H. Kim, Director General of IVI.
With a long
history of scientific collaboration with IVI, India officially became a
signatory to the treaty of the Seoul-based international organization in
2012. IVI has 35 signatory countries. With this partnership, India is
committing an annual contribution of US$ 5,00,000 to IVI and joins
Sweden and South Korea as financially contributing signatories to IVI.
IVI
has been partnering with Indian vaccine manufacturers, research
institutes, and public health agencies on vaccine development,
research, and training. One of the most successful collaborations was
with Shantha Biotech on the development of Shanchol, the world’s first
low-cost oral cholera vaccine. The vaccine was licensed in India in
2009 and WHO-prequalified in 2011. IVI successfully collaborated with
health authorities in Odisha State to introduce the oral cholera vaccine
for the first time in India in 2011. In addition, IVI has collaborated
with the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED),
Kolkata on research and training projects, including the establishment
of a vaccine evaluation lab at NICED.
The partnership will
promote further collaborative research activities and training programs
between India and IVI and will ensure IVI achieves its goal of improving
health outcomes for the world’s poor by improving vaccine access. It
will also accelerate capacity-building initiatives that will synergize
with and benefit India’s vaccine industry, public health and
immunization programmes.
IVI has successful partnerships with
international organizations like WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
These partnerships are used to ensure adequate production of vaccines,
stockpile and prequalification of vaccines.
“India is a vaccine
industry powerhouse that supplies 60% of the world's vaccines for
vaccine preventable diseases and 60-80% of annual UN vaccine purchases
(2012), said Dr. Jerome H. Kim, Director General of IVI.
“We
have been working closely with IVI in India for more than a decade now.
We are confident that this collaboration will elevate the vaccine
R&D capacity at IVI as well as Indian labs and further benefit
India’s vaccine industry,” stated Dr. Swaminathan.
“This
partnership will help us better address the vaccine needs of our
children and contribute to protecting people from infectious diseases,”
said Jhalani.
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