Novel Coronavirus News & Updates: In its bid to find a suitable vaccine against the Covid-19 virus, India is working on development of as many as 30 vaccines and some of them have even reached the stage of trial, said Prime Minister’s Office in a statement.
“Over 30 Indian vaccines are in different stages of corona vaccine development, with a few going on to the trial stages,” said the PMO in an official release issued late Tuesday night.
Expressing confidence in the ability of Indian scientists, the Prime Minister’s Office said Indian vaccine companies are well known for their quality, manufacturing capacity and global presence.
“Today they have come across as innovators in early stage vaccine research and development,” the PMO added.
Multi-pronged strategy for Covid-19
Indian companies and scientists have been following a three-pronged strategy for an early development of a drug or treatment for the virus.
“The first approach is to repurpose the existing drugs. At least four drugs are undergoing synthesis and examination in this category,” said the statement.
READ: Covid-19 Live Updates: India rescues 195 more citizens from Coronavirus-hit Iran
According to the PMO, the second approach that is being followed in the country is to develop new drugs and molecules by using high performance computer modeling that is being linked with laboratory verification process.
The highly contagious COVID-19 virus, that was first detected in China last year has killed over 1,600 people in the country, with the global death toll crossing the mark of over 2.53,000 people.
Focus on Indian traditional medicines
Indian government is also following the traditional methods, which involves use of Indian herbs and plant for boosting general anti-viral immunity of the country’s population.
READ: Air Marshal D Choudhury takes charge as new Commandant of National Defence College
Developing indigenous testing facility for Coronavirus
Prime Minister Modi also reviewed the ongoing efforts to develop indigenous methods for testing and diagnosis of novel coronavirus.
“Several academic research institutions and start-ups have developed new tests, both for the RT-PCR approach and for the antibody detection,” said the PMO.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s office said that capacity for conducting both kind of tests have been significantly scaled up by linking laboratories all over the country.
READ: Govt clears purchase of over 7 lakh assault rifles, torpedo decyos
“The problem of importing re-agents for testing has been addressed by consortia of Indian start-ups and industry, meeting current requirements,” they said.
Prime Minister also asked the participants to embed this kind of cooperation and speedy development and adopted as standard operating procedure.
READ: India tests land and air versions of Brahmos missiles
Meri Sarkar (www.merisarkar.com), India’s leading citizen centric platform that aims to connect citizens with public authorities to bring transparency and accountability in governance, is available on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.
