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INDIAN BIOTECH INTRODUCES NEW RABIES VACCINE

December 20, 2006

Bharat Biotech International has launched a new rabies vaccine, Rabirix, in India that can be used both for preventing rabies and for treatment in case of infection due to animal bite or contact with saliva of an infected animal.

Rabirix is a purified vero-cell based rabies vaccine, which has been extensively evaluated clinically for pre-bite and post-bite applications, and has proven to be well tolerated with minimal or no side effects. The immune sera samples from Phase III clinical trials have been analyzed at India's National Institute of Virology, and the efficacy of the product has been established.

Rabies is an acute viral encephalitis transmitted from an infected animal to human by exposure to saliva. No tests are currently available to diagnose rabies infection in humans before the onset of clinical disease, according to the company. Once clinical symptoms have occurred, the disease is almost invariably fatal.

In India, 3 million people undergo treatment for rabies each year, and 30,000 deaths due to rabies are reported annually, accounting for 50 percent of deaths from rabies worldwide.