The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has developed an ‘antiserum’ for the treatment of coronavirus and has been approved by the Controller General of Medicines of India (DCGI) for clinical trials. The antiserum has been developed by injecting SARS-CoV-2 into animals.
The antiserum developed by ICMR and Hyderabad-based biopharmaceutical company Biological E Ltd is a Covid-19 antibody treatment that has been developed by injecting the inactivated Covid-19 virus into horses.
The therapy works in a similar pattern to plasma therapy. However, the blood plasma for this will be obtained from horses in this case. Horses that have recovered from viral infection after being injected with SARS-CoV-2 and found to have antibodies to the virus will be used for treatment. Antibodies from horses, known as equine antisera, are quite common.
“With Biological E Limited we have developed an antiserum for horses and we have just obtained authorization to conduct clinical trials for that,” ICMR Director General Dr. Balram Bhargava said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The ‘antiserum’ has not yet undergone human clinical trials to establish its safety and efficacy.
Antisera are blood serum that is high in antibodies to specific antigens and are injected into humans to help reactivate the immune system to fight specific infections.
“ICMR and Biological E Limited, Hyderabad, have developed highly purified antisera (raised in animals) for the prophylaxis and treatment of Covid-19,” ICMR had previously said in a tweet.
“Although plasma recovered from patients experiencing Covid-19 could serve a similar purpose, the antibody profile, efficacy, and concentration vary from patient to patient and therefore make it an unreliable clinical tool for management. of the patient, “said the ICMR. in a tweet.
“The standardization that can be achieved through the equine serum-based treatment modality stands out as another notable public health initiative supported by ICMR in the time of COVID-19,” he said.
As part of the study, 10 healthy horses were immunized with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and, after 21 days of immunization, plasma samples were analyzed.
The results of the plasma samples indicated the presence of specific IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 detected in ELISA with neutralizing capacity.
(With PTI inputs)
