Indian Immunologicals launches pentavalent vaccine, VAXTAR 5

Hyderabad: Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), a leading player in human and animal health, has launched VAXTAR 5, a pentavalent vaccine for the children.

The company is all set to make this vaccine in its state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing facility in Hyderabad for retail market and for the national “Universal Immunisation Programme” (UIP) implemented by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

VAXTAR 5 (Pentavalent vaccine with Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and HiB) is available in single dose and multidose presentations. The vaccine was developed indigenously using IIL’s R&D expertise and has been tested in multiple centres under prescribed government guidelines.

The IIL leverages its strength in manufacturing and quality assurance system to produce a highly effective and moderately priced vaccine.

The Health Ministry introduced pentavalent vaccine four years ago and are in the process of scaling up use of pentavalent vaccine across the country. The Ministry procures about 85 to 90 million doses of pentavalent vaccine annually.

“In the recent tender floated by the Ministry of Health for the pentavalent vaccine, IIL has emerged as the most competitive bidder. With IIL’s entry into the Pentavalent market, there will be significant savings to the exchequer”, said Dr K Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals Limited.

IIL launched several other human vaccines over the past decade and has been successfully supplying its Hepatitis B, DPT (Triple Antigen) and TT (Tetanus Toxoid) vaccines to the UIP programme. IIL is also actively pursuing work on hexavalent vaccine which includes inactivated polio antigen.