Seven Indian pharma players race to develop COVID-19 vaccine

At least seven Indian pharma companies are working to develop a vaccine against coronavirus as y join global efforts to find a preventive to check spre of dely virus that has alrey infected more than 14 million globally.

Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immulogicals, Mynvax and Biological E are among domestic pharma firms working on coronavirus vaccines in India.

Vaccines rmally require years of testing and ditional time to produce at scale, but scientists are hoping to develop a coronavirus vaccine within months because of pandemic.

Bharat Biotech has received approval to conduct phase I and II clinical trial for its vaccine candidate Covaxin, that has been developed and manufactured in company's facility in Hyderab. It last week started human clinical trials.

Leing vaccine major Serum Institute of India has said that it is hoping to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by year-end.

"At present, we are working on AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine which is undergoing phase III clinical trials. In dition to this, we will also start human trials in India in August 2020. Based on current situation and most recent updates on clinical trials, we are hoping that AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine will be available towards end of this year," Serum Institute of India CEO ar Poonawalla told PTI.

company is also developing a live attenuated vaccine with US-based biotech firm Codnix, which is undergoing pre-clinical trials, he ded.

"Apart from AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine and Codnix, we have associated with multiple institutions worldwide as manufacturing partners for vaccine candidates that are being developed. se include Austria's mis along with two ors," Poonawalla said.

On partnership with AstraZeneca, Poonawalla said: "Serum Institute of India has entered a manufacturing partnership with AstraZeneca to produce and supply 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University." se vaccines will be for India and middle and low income countries across world (GAVI countries), he ded.

Pharma major Zydus Cila has said that it is looking to complete clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D in seven months.

company h last week started clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate with first human dosing.

Depending on study outcomes and if data is encouraging and vaccine is found to be effective during trials, it could take a total of seven months for trials to be completed and for vaccine to be launched, Zydus Cila Chairman Pankaj R Patel said in a statement.

Hyderab-based Bharat Biotech last week started human trials of its vaccine Covaxin at Rohtak's Post-Gruate Institute of Medical Sciences.

phase I and II clinical trials of vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 by Bharat Biotech have been approved by Indian drug regulator after pre-clinical studies demonstrated safety and immune response.

company has developed vaccine in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Panacea Biotec in June said that it was setting up a joint venture firm in Ireland with US-based Refana Inc to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

company in partnership with Refana aims to manufacture over 500 million doses of COVID-19 candidate vaccine, with over 40 million doses expected to be available for delivery early next year, Panacea Biotec h said.

Indian Immulogicals, a subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has inked an agreement with Australia's Griffith University to develop a vaccine for coronavirus.

Ors like Mynvax and Biological E are also working to develop vaccines for COVID-19.

Vaccines typically provide immune system with harmless copies of an antigen: a portion of surface of a bacterium or virus that immune system recognises as foreign. A vaccine may also provide a n-active version of a toxin – a poison produced by a bacterium – so that body can devise a defence against it. y must follow higher safety standards than or drugs because y are given to millions of healthy people.

Vaccine testing is a four-st process -- pre-clinical testing on animals, phase I clinical testing on a small group of people to determine its safety and to learn more about immune response it provokes, phase II trials are expanded safety trials, and phase III testing is done by ministering it to thousands of people to confirm its efficacy.

Globally, World Health Organisation (WHO) is tracking around 140 candidates vaccines, of which around two dozen are in various phases of human clinical trials.

Chinese company Sivac Biotech is moving into phase III trials in Brazil while University of Oxford/AstraZeneca is in a combine phase II/III trial in UK and has recently gone into phase III trials in South Africa and Brazil.

US-based Moderna expects to start phase III trials of its vaccine candidate this month.

Among or leing players, German firm BioNTech is collaborating with pharma major Pfizer to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

companies have received fast track designation from US Food and Drug ministration (USFDA) for two investigational vaccine candidates being developed to help protect against SARS-CoV-2.