Japanese encephalitis (JE), one of the important epidemic contentious diseases in western Pacific Ocean during the summer, is a mosquito-borne viral encephalitis that infects both humans and animals such as pigs. The major vector is the Cx. Tritaeniorhynchus.
Currently, the major source of the Japanese encephalitis vaccine is the infected mouse brain. The virus was purified and inactivated to produce the vaccine. However, because of the pressure exemplified against using the animal materials from animal protection organizations who opposed the use of animals, the strict availability of the mice make using cell culture to produce the vaccine as a necessary alternative approach.
To develop the alternative production technology, our company put efforts into the development of the new cell culture technology. In 1999, we obtained the financial aid from the department of economics to develop the serum-free cell culture process for the JE vaccines (JEV). After the project ended, we still tried to implement the process in larger scale production so that the product could be further moved toward the pre-clinical and clinical production stages, which will accelerate the product’s commercialization.