Serum’s covid arsenal gets fortified with different candidates

PT Jyothi Datta Updated - April 07, 2020 at 08:49 PM.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum

Serum Institute of India has not one but two vaccine candidates in its arsenal against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). And this, even as its BCG vaccine is being used in trials in Australia and Germany, says Serum Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla, as reports emerge correlating BCG vaccination with the reduced Covid cases and deaths.

Giving an update on Serum’s Covid vaccine candidate, developed in partnership with American biotech firm Codagenix, Adar said he was hopeful the vaccine candidate would enter human trials in India by September-October. It is presently undergoing animal studies in the United States.

The Codagenix candidate is a live attenuated vaccine which is identical to the Covid-19 virus, but with harmful properties removed, he explained, adding that they were basing their “hopes and faith” on this product as such candidates have been powerful and efficacious against flu and measles.

On the second and less publicised partnership with Themis, Adar told BusinessLine it was a measles vector vaccine and its development was a couple or more months behind the Codagenix candidate. The Themis partnership is along with Pasteur institute and Serum Institute, he added.

Clarifying that timelines on a final vaccine were dependant on whether the vaccine worked in humans, he said that Serum had earmarked $100 million for the project and would look for support from international funding agencies as well. The vaccine project also comes with concerns of bio-safety, he said, indicating that much depended on the US regulator’s classification of the vaccine. Higher bio-safety levels could “stonewall” work on the vaccine, he said, as it would not be possible in India. And taking it to an alternative site like Holland would push up cost of the vaccine.

BCG trials

On the recent interest in the BCG vaccine, Adar said that people in the health community believe that it gives an overall immunity boost to the system. There are studies where people are claiming that countries with mandatory BCG vaccine saw less Covid cases. Clarifying that he was not making the claim, Adar said, “it is a bit too soon to come to that conclusion. I hope it’s true.”

However, he added, trials in Germany and Australia were underway using BCG vaccines from Serum and other companies to examine the findings. Developed countries do not take the BCG vaccine (for Tuberculosis), he said, as they don’t see the disease.

Ten per cent capacity

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have taken their toll on the vaccine-maker as well. Initially, essential services were also interrupted due to miscommunication between different authorities, he says, adding, people now travelled with stickers and passes.

But given the global nature of their business, Adar says international lockdowns have affected shipments as ports too are closed. “So cargo was stopped and flights have become negligible now,” he says, adding that they were operating their Pune plant at 10 percent capacity. “In fact we have shut down our production. We have just kept the maintenance and basic facilities on, the bare minimum we need for testing and maintaining our stocks,” he said.

Hopeful that the ports and flights resume, he said, if the lockdown extended beyond April 15, it would put the economy in a situation from where it would be difficult to come back because the effects always showed up much later.

Published on April 7, 2020 15:19