COVID-19 vaccine: Govt panel meets representatives of leading domestic manufacturers

national expert group on vaccine ministration for COVID-19 met representatives of leing domestic manufactures, including Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cila, on Monday to take inputs about present st of various candidate vaccines as well as ir expectations from government, Union Health Ministry said.

meeting was mutually beneficial and productive, ministry said.

"It provided national expert group with inputs about present st of various candidate vaccines being developed by indigeus manufacturers as well as ir expectations from Union government," statement said.

meeting was chaired by Niti Aayog member V K Paul and co-chaired by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

panel met separately representatives of five firms -- Serum Institute of India (Pune), Bharat Biotech (Hyderab), Zydus Cila (Ahmedab), Genva Biopharmaceuticals (Pune) and Biological E (Hyderab).

According to sources, panel comprising Department of Biotechlogy Secretary Renu Swarup, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava and Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary P D Vaghela met representatives of five pharma firms and asked m about ir production capacity and wher y need any sort of assistance from government.

This was second meeting of committee after August 12.

In first meeting, it delved into procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccine, including both indigeus and international manufacturing along with guiding principles for prioritisation of population groups for vaccination.

expert group h n held discussions on financial resources required for procurement of COVID-19 vaccine and various options of financing same.

Available options in terms of delivery platforms, cold chain and associated infrastructure for roll out of COVID-19 vaccination were also taken up.

Furr, strategy and follow-up action on all possible scenarios to ensure equitable and transparent delivery of vaccine was deliberated upon.

phase-1 human clinical trials of two COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed indigeusly by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and Zydus Cila Ltd have been completed and trials have moved to phase 2, ICMR Director General Bhargava h said at a press briefing recently.

Serum Institute of India, which has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by University of Oxford, has been permitted for conducting Phases 2 and 3 human clinical trials of candidate in India. It is likely to start trials soon.

Biological E Ltd has entered into an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, part of pharma major Johnson & Johnson, for creation and enhancement of production capabilities to manufacture latter's COVID-19 vaccine.

In collaboration with HDT Biotech Corporation, USA, Genva has developed an mRNA vaccine candidate (HGCO19), with demonstrated safety, immugenicity, neutralisation antibody activity in rodent and n-human primate models. It is likely to go to clinical trial before year-end.