India And The World Race To Develop Drugs, Vaccine For Covid-19

Around the world, scientists and experts are in a race against time to find a cure or vaccine for Coronavirus. Here's an update on some of the new developments in India and other countries.

(Representative Image/ Getty)

New Delhi: In a review meeting held on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi saw through the progress of India’s efforts in vaccine development, drug discovery, diagnosis, and testing. Currently, in India, there are 30 vaccines under different stages of development, few are in the trial phase. According to the Prime Minister’s website, in drug development, three approaches are being taken. First, the repurposing of existing drugs. At least four drugs are undergoing synthesis and examination in this category. Secondly, the development of new candidate drugs and molecules is being driven by linking high performance computational approached with laboratory verification. Thirdly, plant extracts and products are being examined for general anti-viral properties. In diagnosis and testing, several academic research institutions and start-ups have developed new tests, both for the RT-PCR approach and for antibody detection. In addition, by linking laboratories all over the country, capacity for both these kinds of tests have been enormously scaled up. The problem of importing reagents for testing has been addressed by the consortia of Indian start-ups and industry, meeting current requirements. The current thrust also holds promise for the development of a robust long-term industry in this area. PM Modi in the meeting expressed his appreciation towards the coming together of academia, industry, and government, combined with the speedy but efficient regulatory processes. He also emphasized that this coordination and speed should be followed in standard routine. PM also suggested a hackathon to be held on this subject, linking computer science to synthesis and testing in the laboratory. The successful candidates from the hackathon could be taken up by the start-ups for further development and scaling up. Around the world, scientists and experts are in a race against time to find a cure or vaccine for Coronavirus.

• A report from Italy says that a team of Italian scientists claim to have developed vaccines that can neutralize Coronavirus in human cells. According to the report, the Italian scientist has managed to generate antibodies in mice that work on human cells.
• This news came after the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) said that they have completed the development phase of coronavirus antibody or passive vaccine the team claims that the antibody attacks the virus and neutralizes it in the body. According to reports, last month, IIBR began testing the antibody-based vaccine prototype on rodents. The institute also collected plasma from people who recovered from the novel coronavirus infection to help with the research.
• According to a report, the Russian Academy of Sciences and Belgorod University are developing SARS-CoV-2-sensitive mice that can be used as models to test potential Covid-19 vaccines and drugs. The modified mice will show human-like pathogenesis and symptoms of Covid-19. In the research published in the journal Research Results and Pharmacology, the authors say, “We have formulated the basic requirements for the COVID-19 animal model. Although the SARS and MERS were successfully inoculated in mice, the infection did not spread in animals after intranasal administration. In the case of a new SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is impossible to predict its degree of contagion from mice to mice and the human population.” The mice are going to be made biologically safe for routine laboratory practice which means that the mice will become susceptible to the virus only under certain conditions in the laboratory making sure the staff of the lab and the breeders are safe and the virus doesn’t spread through the mice.
• Meanwhile, US-based Pfizer Inc., has also administered patients with the experimental vaccine to fight the coronavirus. According to reports, this was done cutting the years it takes to reach the human trial stage which usually is taken during the development of a vaccine. Usually, drugmakers test on animals before they move on to clinical trials on humans. But considering the world is in a race against time to fight the novel coronavirus, the companies in the US have jumped straight to human trials.