Serum banks on Rabivax for sales boom

Vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India on Friday said Rabivax, the country's first Human Diploid Cell rabies vaccine launched by the company recently, would trigger the company's market share in this segment to about 30 per cent from the current approximate 10 per cent.

The vaccine launched in all metros earlier this month, is the country's first indigenously manufactured human cell rabies vaccine that has an edge over earlier vaccines from chick embryo, duck embryo and monkey kidney cell.

"The vaccine is also the world's first ready-to-use liquid version and would be available at Rs 293 as opposed to the approximately Rs 800 for conventional rabies vaccine currently available in the market," Dushyant houdhary, assistant director of the company's medical affairs, said.

The company was expecting to double its production target of 40,000 units in the next three months and begin looking at exports of the rabies vaccine next year.

The company would tap its export network in 130 countries for the purpose, he added. The company was expecting to capture 30 per cent of the market share of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) in the anti-rabies segment in the next 12 months.

New products to roll out of the company's stable in the near future would be a quadruple vaccine of Hep B and DTP, he added.