Global vaccines to get faster approval: Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotech
India is in discussions with global health agencies to start a solidarity trial for vaccines, on the lines of the drug trial that the WHO started for potential Covid-19 treatments, Renu Swarup told ET.
by DIVYA RAJAGOPAL
Mumbai: India is laying the groundwork for regulatory clearances and guidance documents for domestic manufacturers who wish to bring global Covid-19 vaccine candidates to the country, as it looks at ways to speed up local access to potential vaccines, the secretary at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said.
India is also in discussions with global health agencies like the World Health Organization to start a solidarity trial for vaccines, on the lines of the drug trial that the WHO started for potential Covid-19 treatments, Renu Swarup told ET.
Indian vaccine companies are in the spotlight as the race for a Covid-19 cure heats up, with multinational firms looking at partners to scale up their vaccine candidates. Last week, Pune-based Serum Institute of India and AstraZeneca announced that they were in talks for a manufacturing tie up for the potential vaccine candidate that the UK drug maker took over from University of Oxford. There are currently eight vaccine candidates for Covid-19 that are in phase 2 and 3 studies. Four of those are from Chinese research organisation like Beijing Institute of Technology, CanSino and Fosun, while the remaining are from Moderna, Inovio, Curavac and Pfizer.
Countries like the US, UK and France are donating billions of dollars to vaccine companies for their work and also as a way to ensure the first access if a product is developed.
“If companies want to bring these vaccine candidates to India, if and when they succeed in trials, we are working on ground to ensure our labs and regulatory pathways are in place for a speedy trial and approval,” Swarup said. “Any candidate that has value we will move forward and push in all fronts.”
The DBT is in charge of evaluating newer vaccine, drugs and diagnostics for Covid-19. The department last month announced funding to several companies, after an evaluation of 500 proposals across the vaccine and diagnostics space for their development work related to Covid-19. On the vaccine side, companies like Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila and Serum have received funding. The expectation of the DBT is that some of these companies should get their candidates to the clinical stage in the next couple of months.
The DBT is also collaborating with organisations like the Coalition for Vaccine Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the National Institute of Health in the US. Swarup said collaborations of such level were not just about institutions coming together, but also of government role in supporting companies by connecting them with relevant partners and offering expertise to help in their research work.
“We have picked up the best companies and we are in touch with them every day. We will soon announce a vaccine development notification for Covid-19 that would speed up the research work,” Swarup said.