Bharat Biotech bets on vaccines to fight drug resistance, eyes post-Covid growth

Mumbai: Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which rose to global prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic with its Covaxin, is now working on a novel vaccine strategy aimed to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the most pressing public health threats globally.

The company is positioning itself for the next phase of growth with a strong vaccine pipeline and new bets in advanced cell and gene therapies, Raches Ella, chief development officer at Bharat Biotech, told ET in an exclusive interaction.

The company is in the process of developing vaccines that could be administered ahead of surgeries to prevent hospital-acquired infections, an area where treatment options are increasingly limited due to rising drug resistance, Ella told ET.


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"Post pandemic, AMR is a big issue...we're making a conscious effort to start developing vaccines targeting these bugs," Ella said. "There could be a model where patients undergoing elective surgery are vaccinated in advance against specific pathogens."

The company's focus on AMR comes amid a growing burden of drug-resistant infections. Nearly one million deaths annually in India are linked to AMR, while globally about five million people die each year due to such infections. The scale of the threat is expected to worsen significantly. AMR could cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050 and cost the global economy up to $100 trillion in lost output if left unaddressed, according to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance chaired by Jim O'Neill.

Ella pointed to the rising incidence of hospital-acquired infections as a key driver behind the company's focus. "We think there'll be a huge demand from patients," he said, adding that it could potentially be a part of the protocol where the vaccine can be taken a month before any surgery.

Bharat Biotech also continues to double down on vaccines, its core strength. "Vaccines are still a very exciting space to be in," Ella said, adding that the company has four novel vaccines entering phase three efficacy trials.

These include a tuberculosis candidate, which is set to undergo one of India's largest clinical trials involving over 30,000 participants. "The world doesn't have effective tuberculosis vaccines," he said. The company's pipeline also includes vaccines for diarrheal pathogens Shigella and Salmonella as well as one for Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease.

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"We're hopeful that next year sometime, if the phase 3 readout is positive, we'll have India's first Chikungunya vaccine," he added.

The company is also expanding into next generation biotherapeutics, particularly cell and gene therapy, with a planned investment of $75 million over the next three years.

However, he said the segment faces significant challenges, especially around scalability and cost.