India developing indigenous vaccines

Lucknow, May 23 (UNI) India is developing indigenous vaccines for several common life-threatening diseases, such as diarrhoea, diptheria and whooping cough.

The process of development is already in the advanced stage and some of the vaccines are shortly to be introduced in the market.

Talking to UNI here today, V L Chopra, Member, Planning Commission, New Delhi said the indigenous vaccines would score over foreign-sourced vaccines in a variety of ways.

''The strain variation in the Indian population hampers the efficacy of foreign-made vaccines to a considerable extent, besides these medicines are costly,'' he underlined.

India also lacks proper infrastructure such as cold chain management, which are mostly a pre-requisite with these vaccines, he informed.

''Therefore, it was decided that the country needs to develop such vaccines, which are compatible to our requirements and shortcomings,'' Mr Chopra, who is also a renowned scientist, noted.

He futher mentioned that the 11th Five Year Plan puts greater emphasis on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in biotech research.

''The idea is not to source additional funds under PPP, but to derive maximum benefit of economic resources, functional input and marketing of biotech products from the private sector partners,'' he explained.

The Planning Commission member averred that biotech had huge commercial potential and viability, especially in the field of pharmaceutical and agriculture, for India.

''Biotech industry commands huge untapped potential in our country,'' he highlighted.

Mr Chopra was in town as chief guest at the inaugural function of the symposium on 'Revisiting Linnaean Thoughts for Plant Diversity and Phylogenetic Analysis' hosted by National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI).

UNI