The Hindu Business Line : Human Biologicals launches drug for rabies

HUMAN Biologicals Institute (HBI), a division of the Indian Immunologicals Ltd and fully owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has announced the national launch of Equine Rabies Immunoglobulin (ERIG), a drug for the animal bite management, here on Wednesday.

Addressing newspersons here, the HBI General Manager, Mr Dinar A. Kumar, said with the launch of ERIG, the institute would be addressing all the three areas of category-III animal bite management.

The animal bite management comprises three areas that include wound management, administration of rabies immunoglobulin and administration of anti-rabies vaccine, Mr Kumar said.

The Hyderabad-based Wins Bio has developed the drug ERIG. HBI has entered into an alliance with Wins Bio for marketing the product. HBI would be marketing ERIG under the brand name `AbhayRIG' through its 2,000-odd `Abhay' clinics spread across the country, he said.

According to Mr Kumar, HBI has emerged as the first Indian company to market the indigenously developed ERIG.

At present, there is one player in the domestic market that imports the product and sells locally, he said.

Of around 17-million animal bites reported in the country every year, over 90 per cent were reportedly due to dog and majority of dog bites fall under category-III, leading to fatal diseases. According to Mr Kumar, management of category-III includes three steps as per the WHO guidelines.

The first step is cleaning of wound under running tap water with soap and application of povidine-iodine on the wound.

The second step is infiltration of rabies immunoglobulin, which is essential as it is life saving. The virus load is largely neutralised by infiltrating RIG at the site of bite and stops the spread of virus further and reduces the risk. The last step is administration of rabies vaccine.

At present, two types of rabies immunoglobulin were available world over, human (HRIG) or equine (ERIG) origin. Stating that HRIG being human origin has lesser side effects, Mr Kumar said the drug is very costly. ERIG is of equine origin and highly economical.

As against the imported drug price of Rs 450 per dose, HBI plans to sell the product at Rs 350 per dose. The institute expects to garner a significant share in the Rs 60-crore plus Indian RIG market, he said.

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