PUNE: Chiron Behring Vaccines has announced the re-launch of Chirorab. Earlier marketed under the trade name Rabipur, this vaccine is presently manufactured using the same technology at the same site. The vaccine is an inactivated vaccine used for active pre- and post-exposure immunisation against rabies.
Chiron Behring Vaccines was acquired by Bharat Biotech from GSK in March 2019 and commercial operations were restarted in May 2019.
Dedicating the vaccine to India and presenting it to the world, Dr Krishna Ella said, “I am proud to introduce Chirorab to the world. We were highly committed in expediting the manufacturing and commercialisation of Chirorab whilst maintaining the highest standards of quality to meet the urgent global requirement. Chirorab supplies will be made available to government hospitals through tenders, with the remaining available for private markets and exports.”
Dr Ella further said, “In our ongoing commitment to address the supply shortages of rabies vaccines, we are making additional investments to increase production capacity to over 15 million doses annually.”
Dr Charles Ruprecht, retired chief of the Rabies programme at CDC, Atlanta, USA and world-renowned authority on Rabies, said Chirorab should be a major opportunity for the achievement towards the ‘Zero By Thirty’ goal for human rabies prevention. “The immunogenicity, efficacy, and safety of Chirorab has been assessed in several clinical trials in pre- and post-exposure regimens, using both intramuscular and intradermal routes of administration,” said Ruprecht.
Chirorab has been evaluated in over 25 controlled clinical trials in 5 countries in more than 7,000 subjects. During the past 30 years, more than 80 million doses have been distributed worldwide with an excellent safety and efficacy profile.
According to a WHO report, rabies is a vaccine-preventable disease and claims over 59,000 lives each year. Recent studies estimate that India witnesses 17.4 million animal bites annually with 20,800 rabies deaths, being the highest in the world.