India's first home-grown vaccine designed to protect infants from life-threatening Rotavirus infections that cause diarrhoea will become available in the private healthcare sector this month, the vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech has announced. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the indigenous oral vaccine developed by Indian and American scientists through a three decades-long research effort initiated during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
While two imported vaccines against rotavirus are already available in India and sold in the private sector for about Rs 1000 a dose, Bharat Biotech has pledged to make available the indigenous vaccine to the national immunisation programme at less than $1 a dose. "For the private sector, the cost initially will be comparable to the price of imported vaccines," said Krishna Ella, a scientist-turned-entrepreneur and chief…
