Two-day workshop on polio vaccine begins

 ​Hyderabad: A two-day global workshop to develop an International Reference Standard and Reagents to evaluate Sabin Inactivated Polio Vaccine (sIPV) commenced here on Wednesday. The workshop was organised by PATH with a grant supported by Gates Foundation.

The two-day global workshop is aimed to discuss and finalise International Reference Standard for sIPV. The workshop included participation delegates from WHO, PATH, an international health organisation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation etc. and polio vaccine manufacturers from different countries including India, and regulatory agencies from Japan, Korea and other countries.

Addressing the media Dr Kutub Mahmood and Dr Fred Cassell from PATH, Dr Martin Eisenhawer, and Tiequn Zhou (WHO), Shanda Boyle (Gates Foundation), Dr GVJA Harshavardhan from Bharat Biotech spoke about the road map for establishing the International Reference Standard for sIPV.

While the experts mentioned that there 2 licensed products currently available from China and Japan, there is a need for additional manufacturers to meet the demand for sIPV to assist in vaccine supplies for global eradication of Polio. With successful global polio eradication in near future, immunization with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) will be discontinued.

It was indicated around 230 million doses of sIPV at affordable price would be required annually for global vaccination.  With regard to the development of sIPV in India, currently Panacea Biotech and Bharat Biotech are in various stages of development. Efforts are on to shift from OPV to sIPV across the world, including India in the next five to six years. Once this is implemented, it will take two years to phase out OPV completely. Dr Martin Eisenhawer of WHO stated that they would engage with National Regulatory Authorities with reference to manufacture and control of sIPV.

The proceeding of the workshop will be submitted to the WHO – Expert Committee for Biological Standardisation for further deliberations and endorsement of the international standard for sIPV. Bharat Biotech played its part to help bring this workshop to Hyderabad. The city was chosen for the global workshop for being a prominent vaccine manufacturing hub in India and its contribution towards the eradication of Polio and vaccine supplies for India, emerging world and International Agencies.