‘Pre-clinical Covid-19 vaccine trials in India could conclude by October’

At least 20 big players, including government resources, ‘working at a good pace’, says Centre

India may be close to successfully developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, Principal Scientific Adviser Dr K VijayRaghavan said on Thursday adding that of the 30 groups engaged in the exercise, 20 are ‘working at a good pace’. Though none of the 14 vaccine candidates that are being developed domestically are ready for human trials, VijayRaghavan maintained ‘several companies are trying to develop it on the backbone of flu vaccine.’ These are in the late preclinical trial stage, which could conclude by October.

“Instead of working on one vaccine and seeing whether it works over a 10-year period, the world is investing in more than a hundred vaccines at the same time,” Vijay Raghavan explained.

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Even as multiple vaccines are being tested instead of one as part of the ‘parallel processing’, the top government adviser pointed out the need to hasten the regulatory process ‘without compromising quality.

VK Paul, member Niti Aayog and head of one of the empowered committees on Covid-19, added that four of the vaccine candidates are in ‘relatively advanced stages of development.’ “Additonally, national labs are working on six candidates, of which at least 2-3 look very promising,” he explained.

“On the drug front, we are trying many medicines, including oral medicine Favipiravir, plant-based medicine ACQH, Itolizumab (also used for arthritis), BCG vaccine, mico-bacterium W, convalescent plasma, arbidol, and hydroxychloroquine, besides remdesivir,” he said.

On the disputed HCQ and its use as a preventive medication for frontline workers, he said that several trials that have been done on its use and it has been found that its benefits outweigh any risks.

Officials said so far about 20 new companies in India have developed indigenous diagnostic kits, which will be supplied all over the world after meeting domestic requirements. By July, the domestic companies will be producing 5 lakh kits per day.