ICMR, Bharat Biotech to develop a fully indigenous vaccine for Corona Virus

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday announced a partnership with a Hyderabad based leading Vaccine manufacturing company Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) to develop a fully indigenous vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine will be developed using the virus strain which has been isolated at ICMR's National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

The development comes days after Israel announced a breakthrough regarding COVID-19 vaccine.

The details of the virus strain have been successfully transferred from NIV, Pune to Bharat Biotech. Work on developing the vaccine has been initiated by the two partner entities. NIV will provide continuous support to Bharat Biotech for vaccine development.

ICMR and Bharat Biotech will seek fast-track approval to expedite vaccine development, subsequent animal studies and clinical evaluation of the candidate vaccine.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,981 and the number of cases climbed to 59,662 in the country on Saturday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Currently, more than 40 vaccine candidates to fight COVID-19 pandemic are in various state of development across the world. For instance, the University of Oxford in recent past announced that its researchers have started testing a vaccine against the pandemic. Interestingly, the Serum Institute of India is a partner for the production of the vaccine in preparations for the trails. Serum Institute of India is one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world.