U.S. and Indian Health Research Agencies Renew the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program

May 18, 2007 – On May 3, 2007, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Honorable Elias Zerhouni, M.D., and the Secretary of the Indian Department of Biotechnology, Maharaj K. Bhan, M.D., signed an agreement to continue a 20-year-old bilateral collaboration ON research INTO vaccines, immunology and related biomedical issues.  The agreement renews the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program (VAP) for five years.  

The Indian and U.S. Governments jointly fund VAP, and the HHS/NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) manages the program for HHS. VAP’s research priorities include acute respiratory illnesses, hepatitis, rotavirus diarrhea, cholera, leishmaniasis, typhoid, rabies, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

"The Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program continues to demonstrate that international cooperation focused on outstanding research and the development of critically important public health tools can save millions of lives," Dr. Zerhouni said. "The U.S. government remains steadfast in its commitment to this program and its scientific vision."

Based on the success of VAP, several other HHS/NIH institutes and the HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have signed similar bilateral agreements with the Government of India.

For more information about the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program, visit the following web site: http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/dmid/indo/background.htm.

To view the full HHS/NIH/NIAID press release on the signing of the VAP agreement, see the HHS/NIH/NIAID release.

Last revised: October 10, 2007