Covaxin Can Deal With New Strains Of Coronavirus Too: Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech said on Tuesday (29 December) that its vaccine candidate, Covaxin, will be effective in dealing with new strains of coronavirus.

Bharat Biotech Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella said the protein components of inactive Covaxin will take care of mutations.

His comments came amid growing concerns over new strains of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, especially the variant that was detected recently in the UK.

Krishna Ella, who was delivering the ninth Dr Manohar V N Shirodkar Memorial Lecture organised by the Telangana Academy of Sciences, observed that that any virus is expected to have a lot of mutation.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is developing Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). It has completed phase 1 and 2 clinical trials. The phase 3 efficacy trials of Covaxin were in progress with 20,000 volunteers, Ella said.

The leading vaccine maker is also developing a single-dose nasal vaccine for Covid-19.

In his lecture on "Innovation in Public Health - Our Journey," Ella said there were 40,000 unknown viruses and 10,000 zoonotic viruses and there was a need to focus on neglected and unknown diseases that could become global pandemics in future.

"All neglected diseases start from developing countries. Americans and Europeans are scared of us because these neglected diseases can turn into pandemics," he said.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)