Six Indian Firms Are Working On Coronavirus Vaccine: What To Expect

As the count of those infected with the novel Coronavirus keeps on increasing, pharmaceutical giants across the globe are making efforts to come up with a vaccine for COVID-19.

It seems that the Indian players have now joined this fight too, as a total of six Indian companies are reportedly working towards the COVID-19 vaccine.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

With the endeavours, Indian scientists now form a part of the global fight against Coronavirus. ¡°While Zydus Cadila is working on two vaccines, Serum Institute, Biological E, Bharat Biotech, Indian Immunologicals, and Mynvax are developing one vaccine each,¡± Gagandeep Kang, executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, recently told PTI.

Coronavirus Vaccine

A recent study by CEPI also highlighted the speed of the development of these vaccines. The study mentions that ¡°global vaccine R&D effort in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of scale and speed.¡± Notably, Kang is also vice chairman of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

The gist of the study, however, in no way indicates that any of the vaccines is near completion. Since the process of developing a vaccine for a disease is usually an exercise of years, even the fastened pace for the COVID 19 vaccine cannot bring it to the mass market earlier than a year or two. The vaccine first has to be developed, proven safe and effective through testing (on both animals and humans), and then made widely available.

What is helping the scientific community with the vaccine development for COVID-19 is the virus¡¯ genetic material that is similar to that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to some extent. This allows the scientists to use the groundwork done during these diseases to build a cure/vaccine for the novel Coronavirus.

Coronavirus Vaccine

A total of 70 such vaccines are under development across the world. Out of these, three have already managed to enter human trials. Various stages of human trials (based on the scale of use) will now determine whether any of those three is a viable vaccine for the disease or not.

Interestingly, all the six names mentioned by Kang have not been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). From India, WHO has listed only Zydus Cadila and Serum Institute as a part of the global firms working on a COVID-19 vaccine.

(With inputs from PTI)