COVID-19: PM seeks to hold hackathon for drug discovery, vaccine development

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the current status of India's efforts in vaccine development as well as efforts to develop indigenous methods for testing and diagnosis for novel coronavirus, reports ETV Bharat Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi.

Hyderabad:Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday suggested organising a hackathon for the development of drugs and a vaccine for Covid-19 virus following a comprehensive review of the efforts made by the country’s scientific community as they race against time to find an antidote to the highly contagious virus.

“Over 30 Indian vaccines are in different stages of corona vaccine development, with a few going on to the trial stages,” Prime Minister’s office said in a statement following the review meeting.

“Indian vaccine companies are well known for their quality, manufacturing capacity and global presence and today they have come across as innovators in early-stage vaccine research and development,” it added.

A three-pronged strategy for drug development

According to officials in the Prime Minister’s office, Indian companies and scientists have been following a three-pronged strategy for early development of a drug or treatment for the virus.

According to them, the first approach is to repurpose the existing drugs.

“At least four drugs are undergoing synthesis and examination in this category,” officials said.

The second approach is to develop new drugs and molecules by using high-performance computer models that have been linked with laboratory verification.

Finding an effective treatment has assumed urgency as the number of confirmed cases nearing 50,000 cases with over 1,580 deaths.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a complete nationwide lockdown from March 25 to prevent the community transmission of the virus in the country.

The lockdown has now been extended till May 17 as it had slowed down the rate of doubling of the cases but steady rise in the total number of cases in the last four days has heightened the concerns.

Early development of an effective treatment or a vaccine is imperative for the country which is staring at an extended lockdown to prevent the community spread of the virus.

The highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus, that was first discovered in China late last year, has killed over 1,500 people in the country and over 2,50,000 people around the world in just four months, wreaking havoc on the industry, trade and travel.

Alternative medicine system

Indian authorities and scientists are also following the third lead to tackle the Covid virus. Under this approach, plant extracts and products are being examined for general anti-viral properties.

India’s ministry for alternative medicines, the Ayush Ministry has issued guidelines for boosting immunity as an effective treatment or a vaccine is still not in sight anywhere in the world.

Focus on boosting indigenous testing capabilities

Prime Minister Modi also reviewed the efforts to develop indigenous methods for testing and diagnosis.

“Several academic research institutions and start-ups have developed new tests, both for the RT-PCR approach and for antibody detection,” said the officials.

According to officials in the PMO, capacity for both these kinds of tests has been significantly scaled up by linking laboratories all over the country.

“The problem of importing reagents for testing has been addressed by consortia of Indian start-ups and industry, meeting current requirements,” said the officials in the PMO.

They said Prime Minister Modi also took note of the coming together of academic institutions, industry and government bodies that combined a speedy and efficient regulatory process.

The Prime Minister also told the participants that such coordination and speed should be embedded into a standard operating procedure, emphasizing that what was possible in the crisis should be a part of our routine way of scientific functioning.

He also suggested that a hackathon should be organised to link computer science to synthesis and testing in the laboratory.

In his first term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on organising hackathons, or meetings of a large number of young students, entrepreneurs in the country’s engineering colleges and technical institutions for solving specific problems faced by the government and the country.

He suggested that the successful candidates from the hackathon could be taken up by the start-ups for further development and scaling up.