A public-private partnership for research in public health to tackle future pandemics is the need of the hour. Indian biotechnology and vaccine research can be leapfrogged only with more collaborative work with various industries and new technologies, because of import restrictions of vital materials by countries like the United States, said Bharat Biotech International chairman and managing director Krishna M. Ella on Monday.
“Public-private partnerships seem to be working well in infrastructure so why not in public health? Let us partner. We need to trust other more. We have extremely good scientists in the country but we need focus. Our indigenous vaccine model has been deliberate based on long term cell mediated T-cell response over the Chinese model. We licensed a patent from the US and got the vital chemical from CSIR -IICT. Our scientists worked day and night,” he said.
The ‘missing chemicals’ within the country are presently sourced from countries like Germany and Sweden which are used for preservation, purification, micro-carriers and so on.
“We are importing a lot of materials, so we need to anticipate such situations. This is not just for us but for the entire country but we are just starting the game,” he said.
Mr Ella was addressing a meeting after signing the joint ‘Master Collaborative Agreement (MCA) to collaborate on development of novel platform technologies for bio-therapeutics and vaccines to support indigenous and affordable health care solutions for both humans and animals with CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Biovet, and Sapigen Biologix. BBIL executive director Krishna Mohan, Biovet director Jalachari Ella and Sapigen Biologix director Raches Ella participated.
CSIR-IICT has already worked with Bharat Biotech in making the crucial adjuvant molecule ‘TLR 7/8’ for manufacture of ‘Covaxin’ within a short span and the present collaboration is also to identify next generation adjuvants, said its director S. Chandrasekhar at the ceremony done conducted in presence of CSIR director-general Shekhar C. Mande.
“Bharat Biotech has been a great collaborator working with us since 1983. They would have gone anywhere but trusted us and it has also helped us scale our own processes,” he said.
The institute would be given financial support by industry collaborators for developing key raw materials and perform studies for further development of potential vaccine candidates and bio-therapeutics formulations, he added.
“The pact to collaborate is to make us ready for future pandemics. We want vaccine and therapeutic research across diseases in the country,” said Dr. Mande.