Bharat Biotech arm’s LSD Vaccine For Cattle Gets CDSCO licence

Hyderabad: City-based Bharat Biotech’s group company, Biovet, an animal health vaccine producer announced that BioLumpivaxin, its Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) vaccine for dairy cattle and buffaloes has received a licence from the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO).

Biovet developed this novel indigenous vaccine in collaboration with Indian Council of Agriculture Research-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar, by using LSD virus/Ranchi/2019 vaccine strain from ICAR-NRCE.

Dr Krishna Ella, Founder, Biovet, said: “This Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA) marker vaccine is a game-changer for veterinary medicine, for disease surveillance and eradication programmes. Epidemiologists and Field workers can now distinguish if an animal received BioLumpivaxin or was previously infected with LSD.” Dr Ella added: “The CDSCO licensure for this vaccine is a significant step toward India’s self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat) in veterinary healthcare, which avoids dependency on imported vaccines. As India moves towards a disease-free livestock population, this path-breaking vaccine will play a crucial role in ensuring the dairy industry’s sustainability.”

A research of three years by a team of scientists at NRCE, led by Dr Naveen Kumar (now Director, NIV-Pune), under the leadership of Dr B N Tripathi (former DDG, Animal Sciences, ICAR, now Vice Chancellor, SKUAST, Jammu), has resulted in the development of the vaccine. The soon-to-be launched BioLumpivaxin will be produced at Biovet’s Mallur facility in Karnataka, which has a capacity to produce 500 million doses per year.