HYDERABAD: Indigenous Covid-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin, that is being developed by Bharat Biotech along with the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), will protect against the new mutated coronavirus strains that have been detected in the United Kingdom recently, Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Dr Krishna Ella said here on Tuesday.
“It (Coronavirus) is expected to have a lot of mutation and you can be rest assured this vaccine also will protect (against) that virus…the inactivated virus vaccine has nucleo protein and membrane protein…so you have these two components in the inactivated vaccine which will also take care of those mutations,” Ella said while responding to a query on the emergence of new Covid-19 strains in UK during a virtual lecture.
Ella, who was delivering a lecture virtually on ‘Innovation in Public Health- Our Journey’ organised by the Telangana Academy of Sciences and CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, said the virus is mutating so that it can infect as many people as possible, including children, who were resistant to it so far because they did not have matured ACE2 receptors.
Ella also said the testing of Covaxin on monkeys and hamsters have shown extremely good results in protecting both upper lung and lower lung unlike the other vaccines.
“Both upper lung and lower lung...are protected in monkey studies, which is important because… if the upper lung is not protected then you are vaccinated but still infection and transmission continue,” he said.
He also pointed out that a nasal vaccine would probably be the ideal choice to stop the infection and transmission of coronavirus because Covid-19 is also transmitted through the nose and we need mucosal immunity, which is a more potent immune response.