印度药企开发出寨卡病毒疫苗

An Indian biotechnology firm says it has come up with two potential vaccines for the Zika virus, which is spreading across the Americas. The company has now asked the Indian government to speed up the trial process, which usually takes up to three years.

An Indian biotech company claims that it has developed vaccines for the Zika virus, which has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation. The two vaccines, created by Bharat Biotech International, have been developed after 9 months of research.

"We have developed two vaccines and we filed in July 2015, we filed a patent also. Probably this is the first global patent filed in 2015 July, nobody has filed before that," said Dr. Krishna Ella, chairman of Bharat Biotech International.

By importing a live Zika virus officially, a Hyderabad based company here in India has made two vaccines for zika virus but animal and human trials could take a long time. That's the reason the company has asked the Indian government to step in and help it speed up the process.

The company is now working in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, hoping that trials can be completed within 4 months. Within that period, the company claims it is able to produce as many as 1 million doses of vaccines. But the council says it could take 2 to 3 years for the trials to be completed.

"Ever since the new government has taken over and they are talking about Make in India. ICMR has also endorsed that the vaccine is now available and they have the capacity to export the vaccine to countries where zika virus is there. I think it's a good step and India has taken the lead and India has the capacity to produce these vaccines," said Dr. KK Agrawal, secretary general of Indian Medical Association.

The outbreak of the virus that began in Brazil last year, has engulfed more than 20 countries, including the United States. The WHO estimates that between three and four million people worldwide have already been infected.