Health

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemical and Fertilizer Shri. Mansukh Mandaviya on 29th August 2021 released the first commercial batch of COVAXIN from Chiron Behring Vaccines facility of Bharat Biotech in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. Shri C R Patil, MP, Navsari, Shri Ishwarsinh Patel, MLA, Ankleshwar, Shri. Dushyant Patel, MLA and Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech were also present at the event.

The ICMR in its recent study has found that the people already infected with Covid-19 while taking a dose of Covaxin have the same or increased antibody response as unaffected people taking two doses of Covaxin.

Now almost 37% of India’s 1.3 billion population is covered with at least one dose, whereas 10 % have received both doses. In terms of the 94 crore adult or 18-plus population currently eligible to receive shots, 51% have been covered with at least one dose. Of these, 15% have got both doses.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, the Pune-based biotechnology company, working on the nation’s first mRNA-based Covid vaccine, submitted the interim clinical data of the Phase-I study to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the government’s National Regulatory Authority (NRA).

The Indian drug regulator’s subject expert committee has recommended approving Zydus Cadila’s three-dose COVID-19 vaccine -ZyCoV-D- for emergency use authorization (EUA), Reuters reported citing CNBC-TV18.

India is likely to have an indigenous Covid-19 vaccine for children by September, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National Institute of Virology (Pune) director Priya Abraham has said amid the ongoing phase II and III trials of Covaxin for the 2-18 age group.

Equipped with the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technique, the technology has been transferred and licensed to a Bengaluru-based company Albot Technologies Private Limited. The oxygen concentrator works at a flow rate of 10 litres per minute (LPM) with an oxygen purity of 92% ±3. The concentrator has an adjustable capacity of 1 to 10 LPM which can be used for both medical as well as personal uses.

In a move that will boost the production capacity of indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin, Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) on Friday handed over the first batch of Covaxin drug substance produced at its Karakapatla facility in Genome Valley to Bharat Biotech.

Bharat Biotech’s intranasal vaccine is the first nasal vaccine that has received the regulatory approval for Phase 2 trials. This is the first of its kind COVID-19 jab to undergo human clinical trials in India. BBV154 is an intranasal replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus SARS-CoV-2 vectored vaccine. BBIL has in-licensed technology from Washington University in St Louis, USA. 

iSERA Biological said the company might able to deliver the drug at a tenth of the cost charged by the alternative antibody cocktail developed by pharma major Roche by the end of this year