The world’s first plastic tube presentation of oral cholera vaccine, Euvichol-Plus, is now ready for use, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) said Tuesday.

International procurement agencies and United Nations (U.N.) agencies can now purchase the oral cholera vaccine, which was developed from a private-public partnership led by IVI and produced by Korean pharmaceutical EuBiologics.

EuBiologics has also started shipping over two million doses of Euvichol-Plus to Zambia and Somalia from last Friday, IVI said. The vaccine is produced at EuBiologics’ manufacturing plant in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

Euvichol-Plus is an oral cholera vaccine with a plastic package that allows for more accessible transport, distribution, and waste management, IVI said. The new form is an upgrade from the glass-vial Euvichol vaccine, it added.

The new vaccine will also be 25 percent cheaper than Euvichol – priced at $1.30 per dose.

“This new, more cost-effective presentation will both allow us to continue to meet [unprecedented] demand and make it easier to transport and administer in the remote areas which desperately need it,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the vaccine alliance

Euvichol-Plus was prequalified by the World Health Organization in August 2017, the agency said.

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine caused by intake of food or water contaminated with the Vibrio cholera bacterium. The IVI estimates 2.9 million cholera cases and 95,000 deaths from it each year.

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