India, Aug. 19 -- In a landmark development, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.5 billion doses last year), Serum Institute of India (SII) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (USA), joined hands to create the first-ever heat-stable Rotavirus vaccine in the world.

Albert Z. Kapikian, M.D., a pioneering virologist at NIAID defined the mode of transmission of Rotavirus, identified the viral proteins critical for triggering an immune response, and formulated a vaccine that targeted several important Rotavirus strains. In 2005, NIAID and Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SIIPL) joined hands for t...