BHARAT Biotech International Ltd. which launched indigenously developed Hepatitis B vaccine in the country under the brand Revac-B, will shortly be exporting its product to Asian, African and Russian markets. The company has commenced the preliminary works of registering its vaccine in these countries.

It has already registered its product in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director, Dr. Krishna M Ella told Express Pharma Pulse that the company would initially export about 10 per cent of its production of Revac-B.

He said the company expanded its production capacity from 8.3 million doses to 100 million doses per annum at an additional investment of around Rs 21 crore. "Our company has the highest production capacity for this vaccine in Asia and this a honour for the nation," he pointed out.

The capacity was enhanced with a view to bringing down the cost of the vaccine by having larger volumes of production.

The company has so far sold three million doses of this vaccine in the country. Dr krishna said efforts were being made to impress upon the government the need for including Hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) in the national immunological programme. "If the demand is substantial from the government, we can sell the vaccine at less than $1 per does," he said.

He said that some of the state governments were showing interest to include this vaccine in their healthcare programmes. The company has bagged ordres worth Rs four crore for the supply of one million doses of HBV to Ahmedabad and Chennai.

Bharat Biotech had alreayd received a grant of Rs 1.5 crore from the Department of Science & Technology for R&D. It will receive another grant of Rs 1.4 crore towards gene-therapy research work. The company has set up an R&D centre in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.