Hilleman Laboratories is a Singapore-based vaccine research organisation. The firm is an equal-joint venture between US drug maker Merck & Co Inc and British charitable foundation

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

. The research firm is named in honour of Dr. Maurice Ralph Hilleman (1919–2005).

Activities

Vaccine research

Hilleman Laboratories conducts various vaccine research and science programs to develop cost-effective vaccines especially for developing countries.

Vaccine programs

Hilleman Laboratories is involved in the development of both new vaccines for areas of unmet needs and optimizing existing vaccines. The firm establishes a portfolio of research projects based on disease priorities and technology opportunities that make a difference to vaccine development and programs in developing countries.

Current projects

Heat-stable rotavirus vaccine

Hilleman Laboratories has recently announced a significant advancement in improving access to the lifesaving

rotavirus Rotaviruses are the most common cause of diarrhea, diarrhoeal disease among infants and young children. Nearly every child in the world is infected with a rotavirus at least once by the age of five. Immunity (medical), Immunity develops with ...

vaccine for children. The vaccine candidate will have optimized bulk antigen production processes combined with simple yet robust formulation and a scalable fill/finish to ensure a competitively priced vaccine which will improve access in the low-resource settings like

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The firm's focus is to heat stabilize the existing vaccine and bring it to vaccine vial monitor (VVM) 30 levels and higher. This will determine the feasibility of applying latest delivery technologies to an existing oral rotavirus vaccine to make it thermostable for further opportunities.

Optimized cholera vaccine

Hilleman Laboratories, in collaboration with Gotovax AB (a University of Gothenburg spin-off biopharmaceutical company), is seeking to create highly effective oral cholera vaccines at a considerably lower price than existing ones available in the market. This vaccine is intended to be easy to use, with cross protection against enterotoxigenic ''Escherichia coli'' (ETEC) diarrhea and be optimized for a longer shelf life. It will be most favorable for geographies with the highest cholera burden, like Africa and South Asia.

Enterotoxigenic ''E. coli'' vaccine

Hilleman Laboratories, in association with the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...

, Cambridge, UK, has started an ETEC vaccine project to formulate an oral inactivated vaccine against ETEC diarrhea. The project involves generation of genetically modified vaccine strains that would highly express immunogenic antigens on their surface. This low-cost vaccine option will be most suited for regions with the highest cholera cases such as Africa and South Asia.

Low-cost MenACYWX conjugate meningococcal vaccine

Hilleman Laboratories has initiated a two-pronged strategy to develop low-cost combination vaccines for treatment of invasive meningococcal disease. It uses a newer method that makes use of synthetic organic chemistry to create short oligosaccharides. These oligosaccharides mimic the carbohydrate epitopes present in longer repeat units found in bacterial capsular polysaccharides. In addition, chemical linkers can be directly designed into the synthetic carbohydrates. This latest method has the potential to significantly reduce costs and create new intellectual property, allowing developing country manufacturers to undertake more conjugate vaccine development projects.

Shigella vaccine

Hilleman Laboratories has joined with Kolkata-based

National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections or NIRBI (also known as ICMR-NIRBI) previously known as ''National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases'' is an Indian medical institute that conducts research and develops prevention ...

(NICED), an Indian Council of Medical Research (

ICMR The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Gove ...

) organisation, to develop a vaccine against

shigella ''Shigella'' is a genus of bacteria that is Gram negative, facultatively anaerobic, non–spore-forming, nonmotile, rod shaped, and is genetically nested within ''Escherichia''. The genus is named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered it in 1 ...

, a bacterium that causes

dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...

. Currently, there is no approved vaccine available to prevent

shigellosis Shigellosis, known historically as dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by ''Shigella'' bacteria. Symptoms generally start one to two days after exposure and include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and feeling the need to pass ...

. This bacterium is the second most deadly cause of diarrhea in children, after

References

{{reflist Health care companies of India Pharmacy organisations in India Companies based in New Delhi Indian companies established in 2009