Hyderabad: As coronavirus cases continue to shoot up across the globe, the development of COVID-19 vaccines that can be used globally is, therefore, a priority for ending the pandemic.
The current response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic involves an aggressive implementation of suppression strategies, such as case identification, quarantine and isolation, contact tracing and social distancing.
As vaccine trial across the world is gathering pace, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is developing a unique intranasal vaccine for coronavirus.
According to reports, an international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the vaccine companies FluGen along with Bharat Biotech has begun the development and testing of a vaccine called CoroFlu.
The idea is to insert gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2 into FluGen's flu vaccine candidate M2SR, the self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response, thereby producing a new vaccine.
Read: COVID-19 vaccine: Is global immunisation feasible?
Refinement of the CoroFlu vaccine concept and testing in laboratory animal models at UW-Madison is expected to take three to six months.
Bharat Biotech is aiming to produce almost 300 million doses of vaccine for global distribution provided clinical trails are proven to be effective. CoroFlu could be in human clinical trials by the fall of 2020.
Bharat Biotech has so far commercialized 16 vaccines, including a vaccine developed against the H1N1 flu that caused the 2009 pandemic.
On March 16, 2020, the G7 committed to supporting the launch of joint research projects for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. Further, world leaders at a G7 video summit explained that a high-level dialogue is needed on ways to ensure complementarity of efforts and global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
With more than 9 lakh positive cases and nearly 47,245 fatalities across the world, the need for COVID-19 vaccine is global, even though the need is differentially distributed within populations.
