THD NewsDesk, New Delhi: Amidst the major crisis of vaccines in the country when the country is seeing fatalities in a very huge number each passing day, Department of Biotechnology Secretary Renu Swarup announced that DNA vaccine candidate by Zydus Cadila, protein subunit vaccine candidate by BioE, mRNA vaccine candidate by Gennova, and single dose intranasal vaccine candidate by Bharat Biotech is in advanced stages of clinical trials.
She added that experts are trying their best to ramp up the production and bring all the vaccines to the use of the common public in the shortest duration possible. Moreover, she asserted that India currently has a promising pipeline of four-five vaccine candidates, while three have already been approved for emergency use.
Swaroop said,
“There are three vaccines in India, which have been approved for Emergency Use Authorisation – ‘Covishield’ by Serum Institute of India (SII), ‘Covaxin’ by Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL) and the Russian vaccine, ‘Sputnik-V’. Besides these, there is a promising pipeline of four-five candidates in advanced clinical stages of development.”
The Centre has provided Rs 1,500 crore to Bharat Biotech for commercial production of Covaxin.
Moreover, the firm has also written to India’s drug regulator seeking extension of the shelf-life of its indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin from six to 24 months.
At a time when India is seeing a decline in health, life and the basic minimum supply of health infrastructure like ventilators, this comes as a ray of hope so that people could get vaccinated and be ready to fight the deadly coronavirus.
Source: The Economic Times
