Zydus partners Takeda to develop, market vaccine for chikungunya
The broad-based agreement between Zydus and Takeda includes early-stage development to the final commercialisation of the vaccine for chikungunya
Hyderabad: Cadila Healthcare Ltd, a part of Zydus Cadila group, on Tuesday said it has partnered with Japanese drug maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd to develop and commercialise a vaccine against chikungunya.
The broad-based agreement includes early-stage development to the final commercialisation of the vaccine.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“We have always been committed to working with partners and collaborating to bring affordable therapies and bridge unmet healthcare needs," said Pankaj R. Patel, chairman and managing director of Zydus group.
“By partnering with Takeda on this very important research and development initiative and leveraging our development capabilities, we will be taking an all important step to prevent the disease burden which is highly prevalent in developing countries and causes suffering and disability," Patel added.
There is currently no vaccine or medicine to prevent and treat chikungunya virus infection, which is mostly caused by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.
Chikungunya has been identified in over 60 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Since 2005, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar and Thailand have reported over 1.9 million cases of chikungunya.
Cadila, which is into vaccine research, has developed and markets H1N1 vaccine, and has been developing vaccine candidates to address infectious diseases like influenza, leishmaniasis, measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMR), typhoid and hepatitis B.
At 10.48am, shares of Cadila gained 3.02% and were trading at ₹ 398.80 on the BSE , while the benchmark Sensex index declined 0.26% and was trading at 28,564.65 points.
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