Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a virtual conference with heads of three vaccine development and manufacturing companies: Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, Pune; Biological E Ltd and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., Hyderabad.
Biological E got permission to begin human trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in October. Gennova is scheduled to begin human trials of its proprietary m-RNA vaccine — similar to that of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — later in December and Dr. Reddy’s has tied up with Russia’s RDIF and Gamaleya to test the Sputnik V vaccine on Indian volunteers. If all steps go according to plan and pending regulatory approvals, these companies are expected to begin making millions of doses of vaccine by next year.
“The PM advised all the departments concerned to engage with the manufacturers and seek to resolve matters so that the efforts by these companies beat fruit in order to serve the needs of the country and the entire world,” said a press statement on Monday.
On Saturday, Mr. Modi visited the manufacturing facilities of Serum Institute of India, Pune; Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad and Zydus Cadilla, Ahmedabad. These are biotechnology firms whose vaccine candidates are in advance stages of human trials in India.
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