30 groups in India working on vaccine development: Govt

NEW DELHI: The Centre has scaled up its vaccine development to fight the COVID-19 battle as nearly 30 groups in India, ranging from big industry players to individual academics are trying to develop vaccines to fight coronavirus.

According to Principal Scientific Adviser K Vijayraghavan, of these 30, 20 are working at a good pace.

“About 30 groups in India, big industry to individual academics are trying to develop vaccines to fight COVID-19 of which 20 are keeping a good pace,” said Vijay Raghavan at a media briefing.

Without naming the entity, he said that some players are at a pre-clinical stage and may reach the clinical stage by October.

“Vaccine development currently takes nearly 10 years and costs around USD 200300 million, but the aim the world over is to find a vaccine for coronavirus in a year,” Raghavan said, adding that this requires parallel processing.

“Instead of working on one vaccine and seeing whether it works for a 10-year period, and investing in that, we have to invest in 100 vaccines (development).”'

“The world is investing on more than 100 vaccines at the same time,” he said, adding that the entire process will now cost USD 2-3 billion.

Raghavan said that it is also essential to go past the regulatory process without comprising on quality while finding a vaccine.

Elaborating the work done by the Indian companies and institutions in vaccine development, Raghavan said that efforts are being made to develop it within the country.

On the other hand, Indian companies and institutions have also partnered with entities outside working on the same mission.

He also cautioned that the logistics of making a vaccine accessible to everyone will be a big challenge as the most vulnerable lot will need it the most. Designing a new drug is a “very very big challenge” and just like a vaccine it takes a very long time, he stressed.