US Pharmaceutical giant Merck, in collaboration with Wellcome Trust Charity of Britain, has unveiled its plans to start working on rotavirus vaccine, which would be taken orally.

A double-stranded RNA virus, Rotavirus is responsible for nearly 59% hospitalizations for diarrhea in young children. But, still its adverse effects are not well known among masses, in particular, the developing nations.

In view of this, MSD established Hilleman Laboratories in India, way back in 2009, so that the developing countries can also benefit from affordable and effective vaccines.

The vaccine, which is intended to be developed at the Indian center only, will be either thin strips or granules to be taken orally so that they can be easily transported and monitored for their effects.

Hilleman's Chief Scientific Officer, Akshay Goel said that the team would particularly take into account the feasibility factors like heat stability, cut in costs and the ease in administration as well as transportation.

It is reported that for this research, Medicine in Need (MEND), a non-profit organization for developing vaccines, will provide its implementation technology and MSD will provide the constituents of existing vaccine for rotavirus.

"Many previous vaccines have not been developed with the specific needs of developing countries for vaccine delivery in mind. This exploration of how to tackle one of the greatest public health and logistics challenges in the developing world - distributing life-saving vaccines without the requirement for large bulk shipments, expensive warehousing and costly, difficult-to-maintain refrigerated shipping paths from the manufacturing plant to the patient, is the need of the hour" said Dr. Altaf A Lal, Hilleman Laboratories' Chief.