The trials will take place in New Delhi over the next two-four years under the guidance of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Reviewing the progress of the Rotavirus vaccine development project, which is an international collaboration under the Indo-US vaccine programme, the investigators from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the US-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Stanford University said that the research breakthroughs were promising.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through the programme for appropriate technology in health (PATH), had recently announced a $6 million grant for the project which is going on for a decade.

Rotavirus vaccine is meant for preventing severe rotavirus diarrhoea, a gastro-intestinal decease that affects most of the children in their early age.

“Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhea in children worldwide, but a major cause of death for children in developing countries such as India,” said Roger I Glass, the chief of viral gastroenteritis section, CDC, Atlanta.

“More than one lakh children and infants die annually in India because of this virus,” said Krishna Ella, the chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech.

“The project represents a new approach to vaccine development in which vaccine strains found in India will be prepared by Bharat Biotech, tested in clinical trials in the country and targetted to a disease which has become a national and global priority,” Krishna Ella said.

Currently, no vaccine is produced anywhere in the world to combat Rotaviral Diarrhoea.