India’s rise to global vaccine triumph: A journey of excellence & innovation

By Subhasis Banerjee Ph.D., Principal Application Expert, APAC Bioprocessing, Merck Life Science

India has made an indelible mark on the global vaccine map, through its long-standing history of excellence, capacity, and innovation in the field. The country’s capabilities to deliver vaccines to many nations during the pandemic while simultaneously supplying dosages to the biggest vaccination drive in the world presented the world with the potential the country has. As of March 2023, Indian manufacturers have supported the government vaccination drive to administer over 2 billion doses of COVID vaccine to its population – an impressive feat, don’t you think?

But how did India achieve this remarkable success? Well, the journey to becoming a global vaccine powerhouse didn’t happen overnight. It’s rooted in India’s history with vaccines and its persistent efforts to expand and improve its research capabilities. To understand India’s meteoric rise in the vaccine manufacturing space, we need to delve deeper into its history with vaccines, its steady growth and expansion in the research sphere, and its outlook.

India’s history with vaccines

India’s rich history with vaccines is a testament to the country’s commitment to global health. From inactivated viral and toxoid-based paediatric vaccines to modern-generation vaccines like conjugated polysaccharides, viral vectors, and protein subunit vaccines, Indian vaccine manufacturers have been at the forefront of vaccine development for decades.

India’s successful polio eradication drive, which relied heavily on the efforts of over 2.4 million volunteers who administered oral vaccines to 170 million children under five years old, is a globally acknowledged feat. In areas where polio cases were concentrated, such as the Northeastern states of India, repeat rounds were conducted up to 5-6 times, reaching 70 million children each time. The country also produced the first recombinant vaccine for Hepatitis B, way back in 1993.

In recent years, Indian vaccine manufacturers have continued to innovate and expand their research and development capabilities. For instance, Indian companies have produced the first plasmid DNA-based vaccine, and several programs for messenger RNA (mRNA) are being leveraged by Indian manufacturers for vaccines and therapies. ZyCoV-D, developed by Zydus Cadila is the first pDNA based vaccine for COVID-19.

Thanks to its consistent efforts, India has now emerged as the global hub for supplying paediatric vaccines to the World Health Organization. Moreover, biologicals and formulations, including vaccines, account for more than 75% of India’s pharmaceuticals’ export portfolio. Indian drugmakers’ ability to produce essential medicines at affordable prices has made them accessible to a wide range of people, regardless of their economic status.

India’s current vaccine prowess

India’s exceptional progress in vaccine manufacturing has been propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed the country to optimize its manufacturing processes. In the last two decades, India’s pharmaceutical industry has invested substantially in scaling its manufacturing capabilities, making the country a global leader in vaccine production for diseases such as measles, Bacillus Calmette–Guérin, Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis.

India’s contribution to the global demand for the measles vaccine is particularly noteworthy, with the country accounting for almost 90% of the vaccine’s global demand. This has led to the World Health Organisation sourcing 65-70% of its measles vaccine supply from India. Currently, India supplies 60% of the global vaccine demand, cementing its position as a major pharma exporter.

With a robust production capacity and state-of-the-art research infrastructure in place, Indian pharma players are now shifting their focus to developing more complex vaccines. One area where Indian manufacturers are actively working is mRNA vaccines, which hold great promise as an alternative to conventional vaccines, given their high potency, rapid development capacity, and potential for low-cost manufacture.

mRNA Vaccines: A Game Changer

The use of antigen-expressing messenger mRNA has exhibited a paradigm shift in vaccine development because of the high efficacy of mRNA vaccine and the ease of mRNA sequence designing. Also due to the requirement of the BSL-1 facilities and small dosage requirement mRNA is becoming an emergent modality for vaccines.

Unlike traditional vaccines, mRNA uses a synthetic messenger RNA molecule to instruct the body’s cells to produce a protein that triggers immunity. The immune system recognizes and attacks the protein, creating immunity to the virus without exposing the body to a weakened or inactive virus. In addition to mRNA vaccines, other modernized vaccination approaches including DNA vaccines, viral vector vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, etc. are also making breakthroughs. These technologies have led to the development of effective vaccines for various diseases, including Ebola and HPV.

The robust manufacturing and R&D pipelines of Indian vaccine manufacturers will enable further research in novel vaccine development and how it can help cure different ailments. This advanced vaccine development infrastructure ensures the future of India as the biggest vaccine hub in the world.

The future of vaccines in India

India’s pharmaceutical industry has been a leader in the generics and biosimilars space for decades, but it is time to scale up to the next level by investing in advanced technologies such as cell and gene therapy and artificial intelligence in life sciences. The success of the Indian IT sector can be leveraged to create new partnership opportunities for the life sciences industry to innovate in manufacturing processes.

During the pandemic, Indian pharmaceutical players demonstrated their ability to scale up manufacturing facilities swiftly and efficiently. With over 740 US-FDA-approved plants that can be optimised for novel innovations in manufacturing, India is well-positioned to reach the projected pharmaceutical market size of $130 billion by 2030.

To prepare for future epidemics and diseases, cross-organisational collaborations will be essential in designing novel methodologies. Technology will play a crucial role in improving vaccine turnaround time and keeping costs down. Strategic investments in new vaccine manufacturing capabilities like continuous flow processing and integrative and additive manufacturing will be necessary. A skilled workforce with strong technical knowledge and scalability of operations will also be essential to maintain advanced standards of production in India.

In conclusion, India’s focus on research, innovation, and manufacturing excellence will pave the way to being one of the leading nations in vaccine development world over. With a strong foundation and a relentless pursuit of technological advancements, India is poised to lead the world in the development of advanced vaccines and therapies, ushering in a new era of healthcare for all.

**The views expressed by the author are his own.