Six Indian firms are working on making COVID-19 vaccine, things to expect:
The numbers of infected cases are increasing daily; pharmaceutical giants across the globe are doing their parts to come up with a vaccine for COVID-19. It seems that Indians have joined this fight as well, reportedly six Indian companies are working on the vaccine.
Recently, it was reported that “While Zydus Cadila is working on two vaccines, Serum Institute, Biological E, Bharat Biotech, Indian Immunologicals, and Mynvax are developing one vaccine each,”
A recent study by CEPI also emphasized the speed of the development of these vaccines. The study mentions that “global vaccine R&D effort in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of scale and speed.” Notably, Kang is also vice-chairman of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
But the study did not indicate that the completion of the vaccine is near, as the process of developing a vaccine for disease takes years, even the fastened pace for the COVID 19 vaccine cannot bring it to the mass market earlier than a year or two. The vaccine first has to be developed, proven safe and effective through testing (on both animals and humans), and then made widely available
The biggest help for the scientific community in the developing vaccine for COVID-19 is the virus genetic material that is quite similar to that of severe actue respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to some extent. This allows scientists to use the groundwork done during these diseases to build a cure/vaccine for the novel Coronavirus.
In total 70 of such vaccines are under development around the world. Out of these, three have already reached human trials. Various stages of human trials will now determine whether any of those three is a viable vaccine for the disease or not.
From India, W.H.O has listed only Zydus Cadila and Serum Institute as a part of the global firms working on a COVID-19 vaccine.
We really hope the scientist do wonders and we have a vaccine for this virus soon. Till then, stay home, stay safe! The number of total coronavirus cases has reached to 19,984 now.
