Bharat Biotech to lead monoclonal antibody project for Covid-19 therapy

Monoclonal antibody therapy is a highly effective and safe method.

Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said it would lead a project to develop human monoclonal antibodies as therapy for Covid-19 infections. The project is sanctioned by the Scientific and Industrial Research Council (CSIR) under its flagship program, the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative.

This project brings together the National Center for Cellular Science (NCCS), Pune; Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, and Gurgaon-based PredOmix Technologies in collaborative mode for a public health emergency.

“We are accelerating the development process to make the antibodies available within the next six months and to improve the efficacy of the treatment,” said Krishna Ella, president and managing director of Bharat Biotech.

The project aims at an alternative therapeutic regimen by generating highly effective and specific human monoclonal antibodies that are capable of neutralizing the SARS-CoV2 virus. Such virus neutralizing antibodies can block the spread of infection by binding to the virus and rendering it ineffective. Monoclonal antibody therapy is a highly effective and safe method.

Speaking about the new antibody approach to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, she said: “While Israel and the Netherlands have recently announced the development of virus neutralizing antibodies, our focus is to develop a powerful cocktail of neutralizing antibodies They can also simultaneously block mutational variants of the virus. ”

“While efforts are underway to develop drugs and vaccines to control the Covid-19 pandemic, these are slow and costly processes with uncertainties. Therefore, an alternative therapeutic regimen for early deployment is critical. “

He said the purpose of vaccination was to protect healthy people against future infections and that it alone might not provide the complete solution. “We believe that monoclonal antibody therapy will provide a viable option.”

“The question is how to treat those people who are already infected, and we don’t know how effective a SARS-CoV2 vaccine will be in the elderly and people with comorbidities.” Given the large number of Indians suffering from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, this becomes an important issue, “Ella explained. The company has delivered more than five billion doses of viral vaccines, including rabies vaccines.

Incidentally, plasma therapy has shown promise. However, the inherent problems associated with this approach severely limit its wider use. The large-scale deployment of this therapy is limited by the availability of the plasma volume. In addition, convalescent plasma also contains other biologically active molecules, such as coagulation factors and inflammatory cytokines, which may be contraindicative for the management of Covid-19. Finally, the need to carefully examine convalescent plasma for the presence of other infections that could be unintentionally transferred to the recipient poses another obstacle.