Comments
The Union Ministry of Health has reserved 30 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine that Biological-E (BE) is developing.
“The proposal of Biological-E was examined and recommended for approval after due diligence by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC),” the Ministry said on Thursday.
The double-dose vaccine candidate of the Hyderabad-based biological products company, said to be the first in the country, is undergoing Phase-3 clinical trials after showing promising results in first two phases.
It includes an antigen in-licensed from BCM Ventures, Baylor College of Medicine’s integrated commercialisation team, along with Dynavax’s advanced adjuvant CpG 1018 based on a collaboration BE had entered into in November last year.
“It is is a Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) protein sub-unit vaccine and is likely to be available in the next few months,” the Ministry said.
The vaccine will be manufactured and stockpiled by Biological-E from August-December. For this purpose, the Health Ministry would be making an advance payment of ₹1,500 crore to the company.
The vaccine candidate has been supported by Government from the pre-clinical stage to Phase-3 studies.
The Department of Biotechnology has not only provided a grant-in-aid of over ₹100 crore, but also partnered with Biological-E to conduct all animal challenge and assay studies through its Research Institute Translational Health Science Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad.
The arrangement with Biological-E is part of the government’s wider endeavour to encourage indigenous vaccine-makers by providing them Research & Development and financial support.
This is also part of the Centre’s ‘Mission Covid Suraksha to develop a vaccine, which was launched as part of Atmanirbhar 3.0 package.
Other vaccines
In addition, Biological E has already entered into collaboration with few other global players for the Covid vaccine. Earlier this week, it tied up with Calgary-based Providence Therapeutics to manufacture its mRNA technology-based vaccine and undertake clinical trials in India.
Besides, it already has a deal to make over 500 million doses of the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine. J&J’s is a viral vector based vaccine that uses human adenovirus Ad26.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.