DRDO Developing Vaccine, Therapeutic Drug For COVID-19: Chairman G Satheesh

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chairman G Satheesh in a statement on Thursday said that "The wing is working on vaccine and therapeutic drugs, while also making sanitiser, special masks and protective gear to combat COVID-19."

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The whole world has been adversely affected by the spread of contagious coronavirus that first appeared in the Wuhan city of China in December. Each nation is in a continuous effort to curb the spread of the deadly disease for which, countries have resorted to nation-wide lockdown. Simultaneously, the efforts to develop cure and vaccine for the disease is underway. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chairman G Satheesh in a statement on Thursday said that "The wing is working on a vaccine and therapeutic drugs, while also making sanitiser, special masks and protective gear to combat COVID-19." DRDO is a government agency charged with the military's research and development. According to the official, the agency made and distributed over five lakh bottles of sanitiser so far and was producing 30,000 masks daily. During a video conference with a private university on Thursday, Reddy said that DRDO is making special N-99 masks, besides personal protective gear for chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear-related activities, and working on software, including one that will track people under quarantine. He further shared various initiatives and activities being conducted by the DRDO to tackle the spread of novel coronavirus. "Lot of efforts are going on to make therapeutic medications. Entire nation is contributing and DRDO plunged into activities right from day one taking up the cause," Reddy, also the Secretary to the Department of Defence Research and Development, said. We started by preparing sanitiser at our labs in Gwalior and Delhi with our own formulations and we are working with industries also. More than five lakh sanitiser bottles have been distributed across the country. Labs across the country have been given the formulations who are further producing them locally, he said during the webinar organised by the Amity University, Noida. The distinguished scientist said many instruments and machines used for sanitisation are also being prepared and distributed, while special innovations have been done for baggage screening at airports. "We have also developed a mask called N-99 with better levels of filtration and are also producing 30,000 masks every day. We also developed multiple fabrics for PPE and in the last one month, we have developed three types of PPE. We have also created a complete face shield at DRDO. We are also making a large number of ventilators, including a mechanism where one ventilator can be used for multiple patients, Reddy was quoted as saying in a statement." We are also working on creating many softwares, including one that is tracking people in quarantine. We have also created secure video-conferencing software. Vaccine development and therapeutic drug development is also going on, he shared. Reddy was joined by Ashok K Chauhan, the founder president of the Amity Group, Amita Chauhan, the chairperson of Amity Schools, and William Selvamurthy, a former DRDO scientist currently working with the city-based university. (With inputs from PTI news agency)