India’s biggest ever trial of tuberculosis vaccines

• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has launched India’s first large-scale trial for two new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines.

New Vaccines

There are two vaccines being tested in the latest trial:

• Immuvac (also known as mycobacterium indicus pranii or MIP), which is manufactured by Cadila Pharmaceuticals in Ahmedabad, and
• VPM1002 manufactured by Serum Institute of India in Pune.

Why need new vaccines?

• Scientists at the ICMR have felt a critical need for new TB vaccines that are more effective than the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine.
• The BCG vaccine is used in the routine Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) in countries across the world. It is generally given at birth or in the first year.
• The vaccine is over 100 years old and, while it has been partially effective in protecting infants and young children, particularly from the most severe forms of TB.
• It provides poor protection against pulmonary disease in adolescents and adults.
• It is for these reasons a need was felt to develop more effective preventive TB vaccines.

Rise of MDR TB

• The new vaccines that are being put through the trials offer a chance to contain the accelerating spread of multi-drug resistant TB.
• Treating TB requires a multi-drug course of treatment lasting six months; longer still for treating drug-resistant TB.
• Treatment failure and recurrence can have devastating consequences.

Incidence of TB in India

• India contributes to 27 per cent of the global TB burden; the highest share globally. That is why, in 2017, the central government had committed itself to eliminating TB by 2025.
• As per the 2018 annual report of the Central TB division of Ministry of Health, the incidence of TB was nearly 2.8 million annually, and the incidence of multidrug-resistant TB was 1,47,000 per year.
• The total number of deaths because of TB (excluding HIV) was 4,23,000, and the incidence of HIV-TB was 87,000 per year.