NEW DELHI: The European Union (EU) and India have announced that they will work together to develop a next-generation influenza vaccine to protect citizens worldwide.

In total, 30 million euro (Rs 240 crore) has been earmarked for research and innovation actions, which aim at advancing the efficacy, safety, duration of immunity and reactivity against an increased breadth of influenza strains. Both the EU and the department of biotechnology (DBT) of the Union government have committed 15 million euro (Rs 120 crore) each to fund this joint call.

The EU is funding this call under its programme for research and innovation 'Horizon 2020'. These joint efforts aim to develop cost-effective and affordable influenza vaccine rapidly without compromising quality. Keeping this in mind, the participating consortia need to bring together multi-disciplinary stakeholders who can represent any part of the chain from lab to market.

The research programme was launched last Tuesday in the presence of Tomasz Kozlowski, ambassador of European Union to India and Dr Renu Swarup, the secretary of the department of biotechnology. Kozlowski said: "This joint call is another demonstration of the increased cooperation between the EU and India as committed by leaders during the summit in October 2017. In engaging jointly on this topic, India and the EU are contributing to an important global public health challenge. Improved influenza vaccines would help the international community to better prepare in the event of an influenza pandemic ."

It is expected that the outcome of the projects will also contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goal-3 to boost the Indian National Health Mission. Addressing seasonal flu vaccination is also high on the EU health agenda with the European Commission urging EU member states to commit to vaccinating 75% of risk groups against seasonal flu each year.

The call will remain open till April 16, 2019. The projects require a minimum of three applicants from Europe (from three different EU member states or countries associated to the EU programme Horizon 2020) and a minimum of three applicants from India. This call is also 'Open to the World' and thus applicants from other countries can join the EU-India consortia.

