India Could Have A Coronavirus Drug In 6-10 Weeks As Cipla, CSIR And IICT Unite To Find Cure
If there is one thing that the entire world is desperately looking for now, that is a drug or a vaccination for Coronavirus (Covid-19). Across the world, from China to the US, Australia, Israel, and Germany there are been several pieces of research going on for a Covi-19 vaccine with various degrees of success.
AFP
In India too there are several attempts to find a cure for Covid-19. Now, in a significant development, Hyderabad-based CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has tied up with pharmaceutical giant Cipla to work on the development of antiviral drugs to contain Covid-19.
Research on antiviral drugs has been on throughout the world for long and many companies have developed molecules having anti-viral properties. But due to lack of demand, these molecules were not widely marketed.
AFP
However, the CSIR-IICT decided to work on three such molecules -- remdesivir, favipiravir and baloxavir.
IICT director S Chandrasekhar and principal scientist Prathama S Manikar said that Cipla chairman has requested them to manufacture 3 compounds ¡ª Favipiravir, Remiesivir and Bolaxivir.
Cipla would look after trials, approvals, and mass production of the drugs. ¡°Clinical trials have been done on Favipiravir and Remiesivir. It would around 6-10 weeks to make them, but we will start making Bolaxavir now,¡± Chandrasekhar said. Cipla would upscale the process on the basis of know-how given by CSIR-IICT.
AFP
Earlier, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had said that it will take at least one-and-a-half to two years for India to develop a vaccine against the new virus even with expedited trials and approvals.
Indian researchers have secured 11 isolates of coronavirus ¨C which is a prime requisite for doing any kind of research related to viruses, becoming the fifth country in the world to do so.
Scientists at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune have been successful in isolating the coronavirus. However, they still need 18 to 24 months to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus even if the clinical trials are expedited.
AFP
Meanwhile, in the US, the first Covid-19 vaccine has been injected on four patients at the Kaiser Permanente research facility in Seattle, Washington. The vaccine cannot cause Covid-19 but contains a harmless genetic code copied from the virus that causes the disease.
Experts say it will still take many months to know if this vaccine, or others also in research, will work.
Scientists around the world are fast-tracking research.
And this first human trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, sidesteps a check that would normally be conducted - making sure the vaccine can trigger an immune response in animals.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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