How the Pasteur Institute of India became one of the pioneers in vaccine production
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With the focus now on vaccination, a take a look at the historical past and work of the Coonoor-based institute
Over the course of the pandemic, many household historians have unearthed outdated albums crammed with sepia-tinted images that unveil an assortment of personalities and experiences. These images reduce a swathe via time; like the one of my great-grandfather, a veterinarian in a tie and sola topee analyzing a cow someday in the Thirties, in a livestock hospital in a hill station. My search took me to the Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor, one spring morning in April earlier than lockdown closed the slim window of journey in Tamil Nadu.
The statue of Louis Pasteur at the entrance to the Institute in Coonoor
| Photo Credit: SATHYAMOORTHY M
An autonomous institute beneath the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, PII stands close to Sims Park, reminiscent of the British Raj. Outside its important gate is a statue of Louis Pasteur, the French scientist who developed the rules of vaccination and pasteurisation, holding aloft a duplicate of the jar containing the spinal wire of a rabbit contaminated with rabies, which he used to develop a vaccine in opposition to the illness.
At a time in the nineteenth Century when viper’s venom and the liver of a mad canine have been thought-about cures for rabies’ deadly signs in Europe, Pasteur’s vaccine earned him a spot in historical past and the gratitude of generations to come back, when in 1885 it saved the life of younger Joseph Meister who had been bitten by a rabid canine.
The library of the Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, that homes some uncommon medical books
| Photo Credit: SATHYAMOORTHY M
In 1902, Lily Pakenham Walsh, an Englishwoman in India contaminated with rabies died as a result of she couldn’t get the anti-rabies vaccine (ARV) in time. It set in movement a sequence of fundraisers and occasions that led to the institution of the institute in 1907. Set up with ₹1 lakh donated to Viceroy Lord Curzon by American philanthropist Henry Phipps, the vaccine manufacturing unit was opened in Coonoor on April 25 as the Pasteur Institute of Southern India. In 1977, it became the autonomous Pasteur Institute of India.
The world of labs
With a workers power of 303 and a sprawling campus of 16 acres scattered throughout the hill with enviable views of tea gardens, PII is presently helmed by veterinarian Dr S Sivakumar.
“Initially PII manufactured ARV from inactivated sheep neural tissue. In 2001, it was replaced with in-house developed inactivated, highly purified vero cell-derived ARV. From 1982, the DPT [protects against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus] DT and TT vaccines were manufactured,” says Dr Sivakumar, the Director, as we stroll down a winding street to the place the state-of-the-art labs, that are beneath qualification, are situated. PII has mice and guinea pigs to check vaccine security and efficiency.
One of the labs at the Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor.
| Photo Credit: SATHYAMOORTHY M
“There are seven new and two modified GMP facilities equipped with automated and semi-automated equipment established with a budget of ₹137.02 crore funded by the Union Government and taken over by PII in 2019. There are three production blocks for manufacturing D, P and T bulk antigens and one formulation block for the manufacturing of final products. We also have a lab animals breeding facility, animal testing facility and warehouses,” he provides.
“PII can produce 80 to 100 million DPT group of vaccine doses per annum once the facility, equipment and process is validated. The Government has recently approved 30 acres in Coimbatore for PII to set up new BSL-2 and BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level) facilities for the manufacture of viral, bacterial, conjugate and r-DNA vaccines to strengthen the nation’s health and vaccine security,” he says.
As we climb again up, the important constructing with its green-gabled roof and gold topped Baroque domes stands framed by PII’s lovely backyard flush with lilies, bougainvillea, roses and a jacaranda tree. It lends the fashionable facility an old style allure. The pioneering analysis inside its partitions impressed many like my great-grandfather to pursue Genetics and work on newer developments in Veterinary Science.
The library of the Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, that homes some uncommon medical books
| Photo Credit: SATHYAMOORTHY M
“The building, designed by Government architect GTS Harris, now has the Director’s chamber, the library where rare books are housed in glass cabinets, purchase and quality assurance departments and a host of administrative offices. Earlier, it also had the production facility of neural tissue ARV and the quality control division,” says Dr Sivakumar.
The constructing bears the plaque 1906 on its portico and is nicely preserved with a powerful teak staircase and taciturn portraits of each man and lady who has contributed to PII. In the lobby, additionally hangs a framed banner of the institute with phrases from Tennyson’s poem, Ulysses emblazoned on it — To attempt, to hunt, to search out and to not yield — which have impressed its work for over a century.
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