Biotechnology company Bharat Biotech on Monday said the country’s first indigenous prepared rotavirus vaccines- ROTAVAC- which could be marketed in two to three years, would be priced $ one for global markets, government and UN procurement agencies.

The vaccine is currently undergoing Phase III clinical development for safety and efficacy in 8000 subjects.

Once developed, the vaccine is said to address around 6,00,000 lakh child deaths each year caused due to rotavirus diarrhea. According o estimates, a third of these deaths are from India.

The company, however, expects the Indian licensure for the vaccine during 2014 and a WHO prequalification in 2015 for supply to UN agencies.

As of now, the Hyderabad headquartered company has a manufacturing facility for 300 million doses.

“Offering rotavirus vaccines at US $1 price is a reaffirmation of our commitment to make vaccines affordable globally. We are well positioned to manufacture and supply them to UNICEF, PAHO and for national immunisation programmes,” said Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech.

The company’s rotavirus vaccine development project is a public-private partnership project between the company and the Dept of Biotechnology Govt of India, Gates Foundation, Program for Appropriate Technologies in Health, Centers for Disease Control, USA, National Institutes of Health NIAID USA, Society for Applied Studies, Translational Health Sciences Technology Institute, Indian Institute of Science, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Stanford University.

“We have envisioned this project almost a decade ago and it would mean significant on the business too. The pricing of the vaccine for other private markets would not be the same. We would ensure it will be competitive though,” said Suchitra Ella, joint managing director, Bharath Biotech.

The company’s vaccine pipeline includes Typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV), Japanese Encephalitis and Chikungunya.

Vaccines for Rabies, Polio, and Typhoid are undergoing WHO prequalification to enable supplies to UN Agencies.

It has also submitted a dossier for its pentavalent vaccine for WHO Prequalification. Bharat biotech claims it develops vaccines catering to the needs of the 5.8 billion emerging market populace.