Zydus, supported by the Gates Foundation, to develop the world’s first combination vaccine to offer protection against shigellosis and typhoid for infants and children

Ahmedabad, India, 4 March, 2025

Zydus Lifesciences Limited (including its subsidiaries/affiliates hereafter referred to as “Zydus”) an innovation-led global lifesciences company, announced its focus on the development of a combination vaccine against shigellosis and typhoid. This combination vaccine, being developed for the first time in the world, underscores India’s innovation capabilities with the potential to provide protection against deadly enteric diseases – Typhoid and Shigella.

Zydus will carry out early-stage development, animal immunogenicity studies and regulatory preclinical toxicology studies for this combination vaccine. The project is expected to get underway in March 2025, and is being supported by the Gates Foundation.

Zydus, a global lifesciences company specialising in novel, affordable and highly impactful vaccines will collaborate with a partner for the research and co-development of a combination vaccine using Zydus’ WHO prequalified Typhoid conjugate vaccine (ZyVac^TM TCV) and Shigella Vaccine from Zydus’ partner.

Vaccination remains the most effective way of preventing and controlling the disease. The TCV-Shigella combination vaccine aims to protect children below 5 years against shigellosis, a diarrhoeal disease caused by the Shigella bacteria and typhoid fever, caused by salmonella bacteria in areas where both the diseases are endemic. This combination of vaccines, if found successful, will safeguard children against two lethal enteric diseases of global relevance and potentially offer a viable solution in a scenario where childhood immunization schedules are becoming increasingly crowded, expensive, and unsustainable.

Speaking on this development, Dr. Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Zydus Lifesciences Limited said, “We welcome this opportunity to collaborate with Gates Foundation and our partner on the development of the TCV Shigella combination vaccine. It marks yet another step towards our ongoing commitment to addressing critical gaps through innovation. By collaborating with key partners and leveraging our research and development capabilities to provide novel solutions, we can bridge unmet needs through high-quality, and affordable vaccines that can create a sustainable impact in global public health.”

Sh. M Hari Menon, Country Director, Gates Foundation, added, “The Gates Foundation has always supported efforts that help save children’s lives. We are excited about supporting this initiative by Zydus, which would leverage India’s science and innovation expertise, and has the potential to contribute significantly to protecting children, not just in India, but also in other parts of the world.”

About Typhoid & Shigella: Typhoid is already a disease of concern globally and various endemic countries already have TCV as part of their national immunization plan. GAVI board also approved a learning agenda on vaccination against shigella for 2026 to 2030 immunization strategy¹. An estimated 11–21 million cases of typhoid fever and 5 million cases of paratyphoid fever occur worldwide each year, causing an estimated 135,000–230,000 deaths². Shigella was the second-leading cause of diarrhoeal mortality in 2016 among all ages, and the leading bacterial cause of diarrhoea, accounting for approximately 212 000 deaths and about 13% of all diarrhoea- associated deaths³. Recently in Dec’24 WHO has published the global priority endemic pathogens for vaccine research and development (R&D) where Shigella is pathogen of concern for Africa, American, Eastern Mediterranean, European, and Southeast Asian regions⁴