Department of Biotechnology, Renu Swarup confirmed it would atleast take 12- 18 months to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine for mass use. They are primarily focussing on the recombinant Bacilius Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine that is being appraised as an immunity booster.
India is working jointly with WHO and six other intercontinental companies to get a wiggle on the technology and develop a vaccine as soon as possible to start immediate testing for the dreadly coronavirus.
The government sponsored academic institutions that have joined hands and funded for the invention of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV2 are National Institute of Immunology, the Translational Health Science and Technology Institution, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Indian Institute of Science.
Renu Swarup says that the projects are still in Phase 1 i.e. in their animal studies phase. By the end of 2020, researchers may get a clear perception in which direction to head towards. Still the vaccine would take atleast a year to come to use.
The immunity accelerator BCG will put through its paces this week. The world’s largest vaccine priducer, Serum Institute of India Private Limited has taken the chance to perform “the clinical trials study of the recombinant BCG vaccine (VPM1002)” in a highly precarious area.
The stages that need to be undergone while evolving through this project are- pre- clinical development followed by clinical development, regular inspection and validation of the vaccines, manufacturing and quality control. This will be examined upon a small faction of people to check its safety, side effects of its dosage and also the effectiveness of the vaccine. Finally after everything has been scrutinized with proper accuracy, the test will be done in a larger group.
