: COVID-19 Vaccine is Not Bharat Biotechs Only First: 8 Things You Didnt Know #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus In a major breakthrough, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has received a nod to develop India’s

COVID-19 Vaccine is Not Bharat Biotechs Only First: 8 Things You Didnt Know #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus
In a major breakthrough, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has received a nod to develop India’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has given approval to the company for conducting clinical trials for its vaccine, christened as ‘COVAXIN’. The clinical trials (Phase I and II) for infected people are expected to start across India July onwards.
Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of the company, has collaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) for developing the vaccine.
“We are proud to announce COVAXIN, India’s first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19. The collaboration with ICMR and NIV was instrumental in the development of this vaccine. Our R&D and manufacturing teams worked tirelessly to deploy our proprietary technologies towards this platform,??? Ella said in a press release.
The COVID-19 vaccine will not be a ‘first’ for Bharat Biotech. The pioneering biotechnology company has made several breakthroughs in medical science in the past.
Dr Ella, founder of Bharat Biotech
Here are eight cutting-edge facts about the company:
1) First Made-In-India Vaccine
In a major boost for India’s national immunisation programme, Bharat Biotech developed the first locally-made vaccine against rotavirus gastroenteritis in 2014. Known as ‘Rotavac’, it was also ‘pre-qualified’ for the first time by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The company also held the country’s first efficacy clinical trial (for Rotavac) with around 6,800 participants from Delhi, Pune, and Vellore. The results were published in journals such as The Lancet and Vaccine.
Its oral version, Rotavac 5D, is also the world’s lowest dose-volume rotavirus vaccine.
Rotovac made it to the Indian government’s National Immunisation Programme in 2016, under which around 3. 5 crore doses were administered as of 2018.
Read more here.
2) The World’s Cheapest Hepatitis Vaccine
Ella began working on the Hepatitis B vaccine in a small lab in 1995. He failed to get funding because of his cost-effective proposal. The investors didn’t trust the man whose vaccine was merely as against the market rate of -40.
In 1998, India’s former President and eminent scientist Dr A P J Abdul Kalam launched Revac-B+® — world’s first Cesium Chloride free Hepatitis B vaccine created by the company. A year later, the company expanded its capacity to 100 million doses and became the largest global manufacturer of the Hepatitis B vaccine.
The best part about this vaccine was that it was manufactured without any preservatives.