Zydus Lifesciences Ltd.

Zydus’ Vaccine R & D subsidiary -- Etna Biotech -- announced a collaborative program with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health- for advancing leishmaniasis research. Under a separate gift agreement, Etna Biotech also extended its support of the NIH leishmaniasis program by donating $240,000 for research.

The program’s goal is to collaborate between NIAID's Vector Molecular Biology Section and Etna Biotech, the Vaccine Research Center of Zydus in Italy, to investigate the importance of vector salivary proteins in a future leishmaniasis vaccine, and testing in natural models of parasite transmission a combination of Leishmania antigens with a sand fly salivary protein to develop a novel candidate vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis (VL).

Zydus Cadila is an innovative, global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of healthcare therapies. It is the only Indian pharma company to launch its own patented NCE - Lipaglyn, the world’s first drug to be approved for the treatment of diabetic dyslipidemia.