Panacea Biotec pioneers development of Dengue vaccine in India

Panacea Biotec Ltd has announced that the Company organized a symposium on "Challenges in Prevention and Management of Dengue" on October 17, 2006 at Delhi. The symposium was well attended by Doctors of Delhi and media personnel. The keynote address was given by Mr P K Hota, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India. Amongst expert speakers were Prof. N K Ganguly, Director General, ICMR; Dr K K Tripathi, Advisor, Deptt. of Biotechnology; Dr (Ms) Dipali Mukherjee, Sr. Dy. Director General, ICMR; Dr (Ms) Shobha Broor, Deptt. Of Microbiology, AIIMS.

During the symposium, the Company announced its initiative to develop and make a Dengue vaccine for the global prevention of Dengue infection / DHF, the second most widespread tropical disease after malaria.

Dengue is a deadly disease carried by the Aedes mosquitoe that can cause fever, chills and skeletal pain. Some 2500 million people (2/5 of the world’s population) are now at risk from dengue. As per World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, there may be 50 million cases of Dengue infection worldwide every year.

"Panacea Biotec has made an encouraging advance in the research and development of a preventive vaccine against Dengue virus. Overall, the disease is a potential threat for close to half the world’s population. The vaccine has been licensed to us by NIH, USA and is in the process of development. It would take another two to three years or so for the vaccine to get into the market, depending upon clearance from regulatory authorities. The vaccine will be effective against all the four strains of Dengue virus and would cater to adult and children" said Mr Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director, of the Company.

The purpose of the symposium being held on October 17, 2006 is to provide a global snap shot of Dengue to the medical fraternity and facilitate deep insights about prevention and management of Dengue. The Company has already established its leadership in the field of biotechnology by providing vaccines to prevent dreadful diseases like Polio, Hepatitis-B’ and is actively working on Anthrax and Measles vaccines.

Source : Equity Bulls

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