Covid19 Vaccines by Indian Institutes – India Fights Coronavirus
A top government official said, In India, in order to develop vaccines for the treatment of the highly infectious novel coronavirus, there are over 20 research institutes working overnight to find a cure.
Among these institutes are the research institute, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.
According to the Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Renu Swarup, there were over 7,000 tech-based proposals from private companies and individuals across the country to fight Covid-19 received by the government.
Swarup further said that several aspects, from scaling up low-cost Covid-19 testing kits and ventilators’ production to expediting research for the development of a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus have been dealt with by the government.
Swarup said, “We are working on scaling up the manufacturing capacity of those who have made the low-cost ventilators and testing kits, start-ups, and incubators. From the ICMR and NIV, they have early approval obtained. To get approval for their kits and ventilators, there are eight to nine companies are in the process.”
She added, “Also to those companies who got approval for commercial production of
testing kits and ventilators, we are extending our support. Moreover, all IIT-incubators have been asked to focus on the isolation of the strain of the novel coronavirus from blood samples, on genome sequencing and on research and development of portable ventilators.”If the outbreak intensifies
Ventilators and test kits crucial. If the outbreak reaches the third stage, these are extremely essential.
She said, “The incubation centers in IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Kanpur are working on making portable ventilators. Three indigenous companies are being supported to scale up their manufacturing capacity of providing ventilators at a fast pace, by the government. To make more ventilators, a Mysuru-based firm is also ramping up its capacity. To manufacture more ventilators, it is working with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), DBT, NITI Aayog.”
An official said, “In India, we will be at risk if the outbreak reaches the third stage as we have less than 1 lakh intensive care units and a bed ratio of 1:1,000. This disease has a unique nature of needing 21-day ventilator support and 3-4 weeks of recovery.”
He added, “In case of a mass outbreak, we require ventilators in sufficient numbers which will serve as the next level weapon after a test kit.”
‘Vaccine to take time’
Experts from the DBT, ICMR, NIV, the coronavirus research consortium are working to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, said Swarup.
She said, “Research has been carried out in finding new molecules for treatment, finding repurposed drugs to treat patients. Research is going on on more than 45 drugs have been identified that may be effective in treating the disease. To see which formulations can work effectively against Covid-19, several DBT institutions are working hard.”
She added, “Our research is also being shared with an international consortium. However, it will take time for sure. It could take up to this year-end to reach stage three of the human trail.”
Over 7,000 tech solutions received on Covid-19
As a part of the government’s COVID-19 ‘Solution Challenge’, over 7,000 technological solutions were received by the government.
For “strengthening the fight against coronavirus,” individuals and companies can submit their tech-based ideas under this initiative.
The DBT secretary said, “To detect suspected cases of coronavirus using the ICMR data, several tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, have pitched ideas for making artificial intelligence-based solutions.”
She added, “To evaluate the ideas, a committee headed by K. VijayRaghavan, principal scientific adviser to the government is working and the selected research proposals will be supported by the DBT. Proposals from companies working in the field of research and development to manufacturing testing kits, ventilators, are invited and the necessary funding will be provided.”
Covid19 Vaccines by Indian Institutes – Source
