ICMR says Covaxin works against double mutant variant | Fusion - WeRIndia

Currently, India is using two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, against COVID-19. Covishield was developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by Serum Institute of India in Pune. Covaxin is a home-grown vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Both are considered effective against COVID-19. However, yesterday ICMR tweeted that Covaxin neutralizes multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, including double mutant variant strains. As ICMR studied the effectiveness of the vaccine, it was found that Covaxin could effectively fight against various strains of COVID-19.

Bharat Biotech received Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for its vaccine, Covaxin, to fight against COVID-19 in India and many other counties in the world.

Now the company wants to improve its manufacturing capacity. Its managing director Krishna Ella said that it would produce 30 million doses in the coming months to provide more vaccine doses to the country.

The company, in a statement, said that it improved its production capability sharply to 700 million doses per annum.

ICMR and the National Institute of Virology collectively isolated and cultured multiple variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to test the effectiveness of Covaxin. These include the UK, Brazil, and South Africa variants. The studies showed that Covaxin could neutralize both the UK and Brazil variants effectively.

Besides, ICMR and NIV jointly isolated and cultured the double mutant strains found in some regions of India and many other countries. The double mutant variant is more infective than other variants. In this context, many countries imposed travel restrictions from India to their countries.

Earlier this week, PM Modi urged vaccine manufacturers to scale up their production to vaccinate all adults in the country in the coming months. In the wake of rising coronavirus cases, vaccination becomes the main hope to citizens and the government to achieve herd immunity to fight against COVID-19.

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