20 July 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic has so far infected 14 million people and claimed over six lakh lives around the world. With the COVID-19 tally over 1 million, India is the third worst-affected country.
Along with the world, India is also in the race to develop the vaccine for the virus which started last year from Wuhan in China and quickly reached out to every corner of the world.
At least 7 Indian pharma players are engaged in developing a vaccine for the coronavirus as they join the race to find a preventive measure to track the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus. It is perhaps the biggest COVID-19 vaccine update since a Russian university claims to develop the COVID-19 vaccine soon after finishing the last phase of the human trial of the vaccine.
India is one of the biggest manufacturers of generic medicines and vaccines. Several Indian pharma companies were engaged in making vaccines for various diseases like Polio, Meningitis, Rotavirus, and measles, etc.
Here is a look at the attempts being made by Indian companies in preparing a vaccine for Covid-19:
1) Covaxin, Bharat Biotech: After its manufacturing and development in Hyderabad, the company has started the human trial of Covaxin last week. With the possibilities to cure mild & moderate cases of COVID-19, the company has received approval to conduct phase I and phase II for its vaccine candidate.
2) AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India: The vaccine candidate is undergoing phase III clinical trials. The institute said it will start human trials in India in August 2020 and is hoping that the AstraZeneca vaccine will be available by the year-end.
3) ZyCoV-D, Zydus Cadila: major pharma experts said that the company is looking forward to completing the first successful clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D in seven months. The leading drugmaker has started clinical trials with the first human dose last week.
4) The vaccine candidate from Panacea Biotec: The yet unnamed vaccine has been developed by this pharma company. Panacea Biotec has set up a joint venture firm in Ireland with US-based Refana Inc for the purpose. Officials have said that they will be manufacturing over 5000 million doses of this COVID-19 vaccine after a successful human trial. Over 40 million doses are expected to be available for delivery by the next year.
5) Indian Immunologicals vaccine: It is a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board. Indian Immunologicals has inked an agreement with Australia’s Griffith University to develop a vaccine for coronavirus.
6) Mynvax: The company is working on a vaccine candidate that hopes to develop in 18 months. It will initially start with manufacturing two dozen doses. It has petitioned Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) for a Rs 15 crore grant. It is currently at the pre-clinical trial level.
7) Biological E: Another leading company in the race to develop the COVID-19 vaccine is currently at the pre-clinical trial level.
Vaccine testing is a four-stage process which includes, pre-clinical trial on animals, phase I clinical testing on a small group of people with mild symptoms to determine its safety and get an insight into it. How does it respond and more? Phase II trial to expand safety measures, and phase III or final testing is done by the administration to ensure its efficiency on thousands of humans.
