A typhoid vaccine developed by Indian company Bharat Biotech has received the World Health Organisation pre-qualification – this means international organisations like UNICEF and GAVI could procure it for vaccination programmes across the world.
Typbar TCV that can be administered from the age of 6 months to adulthood has been in the market for three years, sold in retail at Rs 1500. It is not a part of India’s Universal Immunisation Programme though. The vaccine has been evaluated in human challenge studies at Oxford University and typhoid conjugate vaccines had been recommended by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had supported efforts that helped generate data for the pre-qualification.
The global annual typhoid burden was estimated at approximately 12 million cases for 2010. WHO recommends the programmatic use of typhoid vaccines for controlling endemic disease, although in most countries vaccinating only high risk populations is recommended.
“With the recent Gavi Board approval of $85 million funding window to make the typhoid conjugate vaccine available in Gavi-supported countries, we now expect the first introductions to take place as soon as the first half of 2019,” Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said.