GlaxoSmithKline Plc has filed Rotarix vaccine for approval in Japan to prevent rotavirus gastroenteritis which is a leading cause of severe gastroenteritis and even covers vomiting and diarrhea in children.
 
The vaccine is the first to be filed for approval for the prevention of rotavirus gastroenteritis in infants in Japan. The drug is to be administered orally as per the British drug firm in a statement on Monday.
 
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended in June that oral rotavirus vaccines be included in all national immunization programs to avert half a million diarrhea deaths and two million hospitalizations a year.
 
The new global guidance of WHO expected to raise demand in Africa and Asia for GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix and for another rotavirus made by Merck called RotaTeq.
 
An estimated 1,600 children under the age of five are killed every day by Rotavirus which is an infectious disease, mostly in Africa and Asia.
 
GSK said that this was the third potential vaccine in Japan after the approval of Cervarix for the prevention of cervical cancer in October 2009 along with the filing of its pandemic influenza H1N1 flu vaccine in Oct 2009.