India’s Bharat Biotech and Spanish biopharmaceutical company Biofabri will co-produce the new tuberculosis vaccine ‘MTBVAC.’
The two companies have agreed to global production and distribution of the vaccine to over 70 countries reporting high TB incidence. It includes India, Pakistan, and other South Asian and Sub-Saharan countries.
As of 2021, the widely used TB vaccine BCG (Bacillus Calmette Guerin) prevents infection in children by 20% and reduces the infection from becoming an active disease by 80%. However, many more vaccine candidates are now under development and have completed Phase I and II clinical trials.
MTBVAC is the first live attenuated vaccine. Designed by Carlos Martin of the University of Zaragoza, Spain, the vaccine is manufactured in collaboration with Biofabri.
The vaccine has shown promising results against tuberculosis in Phase I and Phase II trials. Phase III clinical trials of MTBVAC will now occur in Senegal and Madagascar in 2022. Once the vaccine is approved, it will contribute to eradicating TB.
Incidentally, TB is the second most infectious cause of human death as of 2020. The same year, it led to a loss of 1.5 million people worldwide. In India alone, 4 lakh 80 thousand people have died because of tuberculosis in 2015.
To act against tuberculosis, some 1500 partner organizations some governmental and non-governmental organizations came together in 2001 and formed the Stop TB Partnership. Today it is being administered by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
There are also initiatives like Global Partnership to Stop TB and a strategy called ‘End TB,’ adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to curb TB incidence and deaths.
‘End TB’ aims to minimize tuberculosis incidence by 80% and death due to TB by 90% before 2030. So, new vaccine candidates with better efficacy will play a vital role in achieving these milestones against TB.