New Delhi:
The Center has asked vaccine makers to develop a vaccine for monkeypox, of which many cases have been reported in the country. Diagnostic kit manufacturers have been asked to develop diagnostic kits for the disease. The Indian Council of Medical Research has sought bids from both and said that it is ready to provide the monkeypox virus strain.
The ICMR said the vaccine candidate and diagnostic kit can be developed under a public-private partnership and the last date for submission of “expressions of interest” would be August 10.
So far, four cases of monkeypox have been reported in India – three from Kerala and one from Delhi.
The World Health Organization has said that there have been more than 18,000 confirmed cases in 78 countries. More than 70 percent of cases are from the European region, and 25 percent are from the US.
But there are very few vaccine candidates.
One company – Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic – has developed a vaccine for monkeypox, but there are no efficacy data.
Yesterday, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization told NDTV that there is a need to scale up manufacturing.
“The Bavarian Nordic has 16 million doses, which is part of the US stockpile. The US has donated some of those doses to some other countries,” she said.
She indicated that not only could Indian firms play a role in bottling, marketing and distributing existing vaccines, but “we need to figure out whether we can move the technology and start manufacturing in other sites.” can,” she said.