Feature: Indian initiatives
28 October 2010
MSD-Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories
A joint venture between the Trust and Merck & Co., Inc., the Hilleman Laboratories combine the best of the business and not-for-profit sectors to develop and deliver vaccines for low-income countries.
Named after pioneering vaccine scientist Dr Maurice Hilleman, the Laboratories will provide key expertise in developing new vaccines and optimising existing ones - expertise usually available only within large companies. They will also work with vaccine manufacturers to ensure that production can be scaled up and that the vaccines are affordable. As well as developing new vaccines in areas of unmet need, the Laboratories will also look to optimise existing vaccines.
Since the September 2009 launch, work has been progressing on the Laboratories in earnest. The CEO, Dr Altaf Lal, and other senior staff have been appointed and their offices established in Delhi. Once operational, research will focus initially on improving Merck's RotaTeq vaccine against rotavirus gastroenteritis by making the vaccine more stable at different temperatures, while Hilleman's international Strategic Advisory Committee, chaired by Dr David Heymann (former Assistant Director General of the World Health Organization), will examine future priorities.
Wellcome Trust–DBT India Alliance
A five-year, £80 million initiative between the Trust and the Indian government’s Department of Biotechnology, the Alliance seeks to strengthen Indian biomedical sciences through a series of fellowship programmes. The aim is to support the most promising researchers at three specific career stages: early, intermediate and senior. The Alliance has so far awarded eight early-stage project grants, ten intermediate fellowships and ten senior fellowships.
R&D for Affordable Healthcare for India
This initiative looks to bring together researchers from the public and private sectors, largely working in India, to develop innovative new devices, diagnostics, medicines and vaccines. Announced during Sir Mark's visit, this £45 million partnership between the Trust and the Indian Department of Biotechnology follows a successful pilot scheme. The initiative has a number of awards in the pipeline in areas such as cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis and ophthalmology. One such project is a collaboration between the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad and the University of Sheffield to develop and use new biocompatible materials for a stem-cell based therapy to restore sight where the cornea has been damaged by chemical injury or burns. The initiative's funding committee has made five awards to date, with others to come. Find out more
South Asia Network for Chronic Diseases
In 2008, Professor Shah Ebrahim was granted a £4.5m Strategic Award to establish the South Asia Network for Chronic Disease, a collaboration between the Public Health Foundation of India and the five London institutions that make up the Wellcome Trust Bloomsbury Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine. Network partners, which include research groups across India and in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, share skills and knowledge to try to improve the prevention and control of chronic disease in South Asia.
Indian Programme Awards
For many years, the Trust has supported research on the Indian subcontinent on a wide variety of topics in the history of medicine, such as public health, epidemics and historical epidemiology, and the interaction of Western and traditional systems of medicine. To build on this, this year saw the launch of the Indian Programme Awards. This scheme will provide up to five years of flexible support for medical humanities researchers in India. The aim is for grantholders to act as a 'hub' of research and training activities in medical history and humanities for their own region or state and develop local collaborations across several disciplines, enabling a more fruitful dialogue between the humanities, public health workers and policy makers.
Debating Matters
In 2009, in partnership with the British Council, we took the ‘Debating Matters’ competition to India. This brings together students from all backgrounds to debate topical scientific issues. An extended Society Award from the Trust saw the competition run for a second time in January 2010 with a final in Delhi, and a third competition will run in 2011.
Image: Hospital, Central India - teaching round. Credit: Wellcome Photo Library, Wellcome Images.
