Indian Immunologicals, a leading veterinary and human vaccines manufacturing company, today announced the launch of the Classical Swine Fever (CSF) vaccine under the brand name – ‘Raksha Class’- into the market. This unique cell culture technology-based vaccine has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly.
The CSF is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs caused by an RNA virus. This disease has a high fatality rate and therefore, pig growers face serious economic problems with the loss of the herd.
The Raksha Class vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine and has reportedly been tested for safety, sterility, and potency. The field trials for the vaccine were conducted at Bengaluru and Hyderabad Veterinary colleges.
Raksha Class offers distinct advantages in terms of safety and can be scaled up in cell cultures to meet the entire country’s requirements. The current requirement is about 22 million doses and the supply is less than a million doses. The current vaccines manufactured by a few state biologicals depend on the rabbits for vaccine production, where consistency in yields, virus titres, safety and efficacy might not be achieved to the desired levels. Indian Immunologicals manufacturing facilities can make several million doses of the vaccine, informed a company release.
Dr K Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals said, “The Classical Swine Fever is one of the major diseases of pigs in India. It causes a loss of about Rs. 400 crores per annum in India. The disease has led to a decrease in the pig population in the country. With the launch of Raksha Class, we can ensure that the pig population in India can be increased and hence, the growers will be immensely benefited economically”.
Elaborating the pig farming in the country, Dr Prasanna Deshpande, Deputy Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals said, “The current pig population in India is estimated to be around 9 million. More than 50 per cent of these piggery units are concentrated in the Northeast region of the country. Classical Swine Fever is prevalent in almost all the states where this pig population exists. Raksha Class will address the country’s requirements and offer the vaccine at an affordable cost to the growers in India”.