Covid-19: PM virtually reviews vaccine progress of 3 more pharma companies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday had virtual meetings with three teams working on developing and manufacturing vaccine for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

These teams were from Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd in Pune, Biological E Ltd, and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, in Hyderabad, according to the statement released by PMO.

“The PM appreciated the efforts being taken by the scientists in these companies to come out with a vaccine solution to tackle Covid-19. The potential of various platforms for vaccine development was also discussed,” the statement read.

PM Modi also discussed matters related to regulatory approvals of the vaccine candidates. “PM also asked the companies to come out with their suggestions and ideas regarding the regulatory processes and related matters,” the statement said.

The PM also suggested the companies to have a vaccine outreach initiative in place for the general public so as to dispel myths or doubts about it.“He suggested that they should take extra efforts to inform the general public in simple language about the vaccine and related matters such as its efficacy etc,” read the statement.

Matters relating to logistics, transport, cold chain etc; in respect of delivering the vaccines were also discussed in the meeting. All the vaccine candidates discussed are at different stages of trials -- between phase 1 and phase 3 -- and detailed data and results are expected from early next year.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has tied up with the Russian Covid-19 vaccine developers to conduct phase 2/3 clinical trials for their Sputnik V in India.

Biological E has also recently started phase 1/2 clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals is also ready to test its m-RNA vaccine candidate against Covid-19.

On Saturday, PM Modi had taken a three-city tour to physically review progress at three companies that are in advanced stages of developing and testing Covid-19 vaccine candidate. The companies he visited were Zydus Cadila in Ahmadabad, Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad, and Serum Institute of India in Pune.