‘India can change the international course of Aids epidemic’

The International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) was established in 1996 with the need to have an organisation that could help communities across the world to get equal access to Aids vaccine when it becomes available. IAVI signed an MoU with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Indian Council of Medical Research in 2001, thereby initiating its work in India.Even as National Aids Research Institute is in the process of developing a suitable vaccine candidate, IAVI, ICMR and NACO have taken up the task of preparing the community at state levels for clinical trials through interaction with the society. Anjali Nayyar, country head, IAVI India, briefed Soumya Viswanathan on IAVI India’s work during the first state level interaction programme for vaccine preparedness in Maharashtra.

How does the IAVI operate in countries other than India? How different is its operation here?

The cornerstone of IAVI is vaccine development partnerships (VDPs) that is formed either with leading university or government. India is the fifth country with which IAVI had formed a vaccine development partnership. What is different about the way IAVI works in India is that for the first time we have an office. Otherwise, it operates through consultancy or through representatives of government. We had to set up an office because it is a huge country and can change the course of the epidemic globally.

IAVI has worked on preparedness for vaccine trials in other countries. Would challenges in India be any different?

Vaccine preparedness in other countries was not done as systematically as we have started in India. On the other hand, NGO networks in Kenya and Uganda are good. We can always learn from our experiences in other countries but it is not that we have one model which is replicated in others.

Since when has IAVI been working on preparedness?

We have been working for a year towards initiating preparedness. We started by doing a study to identify gaps and concerns. We had indepth interviews with NGO leaders, government and political influencers to understand the concerns that would arise if India went into trials. We discovered that the key questions were — would it be held ethically, what would the gains be, would it be used for India, would it be accessible. The group agreed to hold trials if the following conditions were met — community is informed, government is a partner and trials are ethical.

We then formed a National Advisory Board and then decided to move to states to reach the community level.

Do you think government should prepare a policy on vaccine trials?

The government could issue a formal statement that we are going into trial. Otherwise it is already mentioned in the NACO policy.

What are the problems faced in vaccine manufacturing?

The problem basically lies in the technology transfer of vaccine manufacturing. Though IAVI has modelled an innovative Intellectual Property policy, it has to be accepted by the biotech company to transfer technology to a developing country. In the case of India, Therion Biologics, USA will transfer its technology to an Indian biotech company once India has developed the vaccine. As per IAVI’s IP policy, exclusive rights will remain with India for sale in India and SAARC countries and Therion will have rights for sale in developed nations. But I am not sure if this will work everywhere.

Has this IP policy worked before?

The other developing countries we are working in do not have manufacturing capabilities. In India, there are 3 or 4 companies that have the know-how.