Seven Indian Companies In Race To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

The Coronavirus disease has wreaked havoc around the world as it has infected 14 million people and killed more than six lakh. 

India is the third worst affected country by the COVID-19. Needless to mention, there is no appropriate vaccination developed yet, as it has been more than half of the year the world is under the threat of pandemic. Along with the other countries, India too is engaging in the development of COVID-19 vaccine.

Undoubtedly, India is among the biggest manufacturers in various generic medicines and vaccines. Evidently, it has supplied Hydroxychloroquine to the US and India has become the biggest manufacturer of Hydroxychloroquine. Many Indian companies are immensely engaged in making vaccines and also started testing vaccines for COVID-19. 

There are seven Indian firms in the race to develop the COVID-19 vaccine and now it’s time to check which stands where. 

The companies that are in the race are like Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Biological E, Zydus Cadila, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax & Panacea Biotec. 

• Bharat Biotech, Covaxin– This vaccine has been developed and manufactured in Hyderabad and the company has started attempting the trails last week in AIIMS (All India Institute of Technology). The Bharat Biotech has received approval to conduct phase I and II clinical trials for its vaccine candidate. 
• Serum Institute, AstraZeneca– The testing of the candidate is undergoing Phase III of clinical trials. The institute said the human trails will start in August 2020 and is hoping that vaccines will be available by the year-end. 
• Biological E– The vaccine candidate is being developed by the company and is currently at the pre-clinical trial level. 
• Zydus Cadila, ZyCoV-D– The pharma is looking to complete the clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in seven months. The company had started clinical trials with the first human dosing last week. 
• Indian Immunologicals Vaccine– It is a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board. Indian Immunologicals has signed an agreement with Australia’s Griffith University to develop a vaccine for Coronavirus. No other details have been revealed yet. 
• Mynvax– The vaccine is currently at the preclinical trial level and the company is working on a vaccine candidate which it hopes to develop in 18 months. The company stated that it will initially start with two dozen doses. 
• Panacea Biotec– The Vaccine is being unnamed yet and the company, Panacea Biotec, has set up a joint venture in Ireland with US-based Refana Inc for the purpose. The company claims to have manufactured over 500 million doses & over 40 million doses are expected to be available for delivery next year.  

There is no other option except waiting for the successful results of these aforementioned vaccines.