8 pharma firms make a beeline for monkeypox vax

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has reportedly received 31 bids from pharmaceutical firms for developing vaccines and test kits for the monkeypox virus in India. As per the ICMR’s July 27 document, further research with the monkeypox isolates, and related manufacture of vaccine and kits, will be in a public-private partnership mode.

While eight firms have shown interest in developing the vaccine, the others have shown willingness to develop the detection kits.

While India has reported 10 cases of the zoonotic infection, over 18,000 cases have been reported from 78 other countries. The latest case has been reported from Delhi, in a 22-year-old woman who recently returned from Nigeria.

With the deepening global threat over the infection, the ICMR had sounded out vaccine makers in late July and had invited expressions of interest from private pharmaceutical firms.

Currently though, the idea is to use the vaccine only on the high-risk groups who are yet to be clearly defined even globally. The World Health Organisation had recently indicated that the gay population is at greater risk as the infection is intimacy related, but later clarified that the warnings are in no way directed to any one group of individuals.

Published on: Saturday, August 13, 2022, 11:06 PM IST