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The government has allocated Rs 100 crore from the PM-CARES Fund (Prime Minister’s Citizen Relief and Assistance Fund for Emergency Situations) to support the initiative to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). According to the Department of Biotechnology, there are up to 25 vaccine development initiatives underway in India, in academic institutions, in industry and in startups.
The assignment will be used under the supervision of the Chief Scientific Adviser, K VijayRaghavan.
“The allocation of 100 million rupees from the PM-CARES fund was announced yesterday; We will take a position on how to use it in the coming days. But the support will definitely be for a fully indigenous vaccine candidate, “said Dr. Renu Swarup, secretary of the biotechnology department, which is the nodal agency for the Covid-19 vaccine development effort in the Prime Task Force. Minister.
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At least 10 vaccine projects are receiving support, both monetary and regulatory, under the DBT-BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) consortium. It is unclear whether these projects will also be eligible to receive money from PM-CARES.
“These projects are already receiving the support of BIRAC, and it is too early to say if this funding will go to any of them. Most of them have international associations. In addition to these 10 candidates, there are about fifteen more from different research groups. These are at different stages of development and are currently being evaluated by the committee to see what has progressed and make more sense, ”said Dr. Swarup.
So far, DBT-BIRAC has supported 70 proposals; accepts applications continuously. Of these 70 proposals, 10 are vaccine candidates, 34 are diagnostic for development or expansion, 10 are therapeutic options, two are drug reuse proposals, and 14 are preventive interventions.
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Some of the consortium-supported vaccine candidates include a next-generation mRNA vaccine candidate from Gennova and another from Christian Medical College, Vellore. These vaccines use genetic material from the virus to create an immune response. Work on an intranasal vaccine by the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology is also being supported by him.
Bharat Biotech has developed another candidate vaccine selected for funding, which uses an inactivated rabies virus as a vector or transport for some Sars-Cov-2 gene sequence and produces an immune response.
“All the proposals under the consortium are being financed by the National Biopharmacy Mission. However, these activities were not pre-budgeted, so some of the existing projects are being archived to fund those that are of high priority. A request for budget supplementation has been submitted to continue non-Covid commitments, “said Dr. Manish Diwan, chief, strategic partnerships and business development at BIRAC.
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The Department of Biotechnology has also established the N-BRIC National Consortium for the Indigenization of Biomedical Resources as a Public-Private Association to promote indigenous innovation focused on the development of reagents, diagnoses, vaccines and therapies for Covid-19. The consortium will be based at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in Bangalore and will aim to provide a platform to build indigenous biomedical resources, according to a C-CAMP statement.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, President of N-BRIC said: “This consortium is of immense national importance at a time of an unprecedented global health emergency. This will allow us to synergize and optimize the latent capabilities we have across the pyramid of academic research labs, startups, MSMEs and large companies to deliver innovative solutions at scale for India and the world. “
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“To satisfy our biotechnological and biomedical needs, the country needs to be self-sufficient for the manufacture of products and also the components, reagents, resources throughout the product development chain, N-BRIC brings together academia, industry, new companies and MSMEs to serve not only the country but the world, “said Swarup.
C-CAMP is a DBT supported life science incubator. Its mandate is to enable cutting-edge research and innovation in life sciences, and to promote entrepreneurship.
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