Indian scientists have developed a new, safer and cheaper anti-anthrax vaccine that will be available commercially in the next six to nine months, the government said on Monday. Scientists said the new vaccine, which had been more than six years in development, had been tested on mice and guinea pigs and would be tested on other animals and humans in the next six months under a fast-track process used in emergency situations. Fears of germ warfare have spread around the world since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Over the past month there have been 17 confirmed cases of anthrax in the United States and four people have died. Anthrax, once a disease of farm animals, is spread by spores. Without quick antibiotic treatment, more than 80 percent of people who become ill after inhaling the spores die. The new vaccine was developed at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the state-run Center for Biochemical Technology, the Minister for Science and Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, told a news conference. The vaccine, which uses recombinant technology, "is much easier to produce and the cost of production would be very low," Joshi said. He gave no details of pricing. Currently, only the United States, Britain and Russia have anthrax vaccines but they use an older manufacturing process.
"Vaccines are available even now but they have strong side effects, they need boosters and are expensive," Joshi said. "But the recombinant process through which Indian scientists have now developed a vaccine avoids toxic effects."

Scientists said side effects of existing anthrax vaccines included redness of the skin and itching at the site of injection and sometimes flu-like illness.
Joshi said there was a large global market for the vaccine in light of the new threat of bioterrorism. Bureau Report