Insulin and Hepatitis B Vaccine Prices to go Down Soon

BENGALURU: Institute of Microbial Technology (IMETCH), Chandigarh have developed a sterling technology to produce protein based medicines—insulin, streptokinase (clot buster) and the hepatitis B vaccine in India. Along with the advent of this technology, scientists are expecting a heavy drop in the price of insulin and hepatitis B vaccines.

In the current scenario, India is depended on the foreign countries for patented technology to produce insulin, streptokinase, and hepatitis B medicines. The import from international market has made the prices of these medicines go high in India. Of the many imports of medicine, one such patented ingredient for making insulin is the vector ‘Pichia’. This protein expression host technology of RCT — Pichia is a vector which is widely used for making proteins necessary for to develop Insulin and other vaccines.

Dr Jagmohan Singh, Chief Scientist, IMETCH has reported Economic Times (ET) that Indian biotech companies have to pay for the patented vector ‘Pichia’, adding to the cost of vaccine and this led IMETCH scientists to develop a new technology. Pichia vector is licensed for commercial research with price tag of 50,000 USD and an annual maintenance and storage cost floating between 5000 to 30,000 USD. If Pichia is commercialized then prices may sore high to 75,000 USD, this is excluding royalty charges which ranges 3 to 5 Pct.  

ET reports that Virendra Singh, Department of Hepatology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh has explained in an interview that once the production is on a large scale, the costs per dose of Pichia-based system would come down to 1 against 4.

The whole concept behind this new technology is to make the vaccine affordable to every individual who are in need and that too with a reasonable price so that even an individual below the poverty line can purchase the vaccine.

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