Bharat Biotech working on nasal drops for corona virus: Dr. Krishna Ella

Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella said the Bharat Biotech International Limited's (BBIL) Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) facility currently has limited capacity but hoped to reach one billion (100 crore) doses by next year. The company is also looking to manufacture a billion doses of a single-dose intranasal vaccine.

Hyderabad: The Chairman of Bharat Biotech, Dr. Krishna Ella participated in the Indian School of Business dialogue online meeting, in Hyderabad. He spoke about Covaxin development and its availability.

Even as India's first indigenous coronavirus vaccine Covaxin is entering its third phase of human trials, Bharat Biotech raised the logistical query on "how to vaccinate 1.3 billion (130 crore) people with two injectable doses. Terming the exercise a "challenge" it also said that work was on single-dose nasal drop vaccine.

Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella said the Bharat Biotech International Limited's (BBIL) Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) facility currently has limited capacity but hoped to reach one billion (100 crore) doses by next year.

"We have partnered with ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) for Covaxin and as we speak, we are entering phase III trials but I am not happy because it is a two-dose injectable vaccine. If we have to vaccinate 1.3 billion population with the two-dose vaccine, we need 2.6 billion (260 crore) syringes and needles," he said.

Ella said that Biotech is working on a nasal drop for Coronavirus. Once third phase clinical trials finish, the vaccine will be introduced, he added. He said that about 260 injections of Covaxin will be needed so to reduce the burden, hence the company is working on a nasal vaccine.

"We are working on another vaccine, a single dose nasal drop. We have experience in making Rotavirus and Polio nasal drop vaccines. We can scale up to 1 billion doses and my feeling is that by next year we will reach there," he said.

The Hyderabad-headquartered vaccine maker announced in September that it is collaborating with the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri to manufacture a billion doses of a single-dose intranasal vaccine.

"The challenge is to vaccinate 1.3 billion population. Six billion (600 crore) people in the developing world have to be vaccinated but the opportunity is if 20 per cent of them are vaccinated, I have done my job as a scientist. You partly need the vaccine because there will be herd immunity," he added.

Ella also pointed out that 40,000 unknown viruses are existing. "10,000 viruses can hop from animal to animal and to human. What we are seeing today is only a sample. Because of its impact on the economy, it got more attention. We are yet to see a lot many things."

With agency inputs