Bigger India
100 People in the UK Swallowed Live Bacteria to Help Create India’s Breakthrough Typhoid Vaccine
The first conjugate vaccine for typhoid, by the Hyderabad-based company Bharat Biotech, was prequalified by the World Health Organisation in December 2017 and has caught the attention of GAVI, the international vaccine alliance.
When a 100 residents of Oxford, United Kingdom agreed to swallow live typhoid bacteria as part of a study, they paved the way for a breakthrough Indian vaccine for typhoid.
The first conjugate vaccine for typhoid, by the Hyderabad-based company Bharat Biotech, was prequalified by the World Health Organisation in December 2017 and has caught the attention of GAVI, the international vaccine alliance.
India has produced a vaccine that can be administered to children as young as 6 months, unlike previous typhoid vaccines that could only be given to children 2 years old and above. To test this vaccine’s strength, Bharat Biotech not only did clinical trials in India but undertook a ‘human challenge study’ in Oxford, an unusual feat for Indian companies, according to Bharat’s founder and managing director Dr. Krishna Ella.