HYDERABAD: The BioAsia Summit 2022, which kicked off on Thursday, has highlighted India’s role and contribution in development of vaccines. The experts praised the country for doing a path-breaking work in development and supply of vaccines.
During a panel discussion on ‘Two years into the pandemic - Challenges, successes and what next’, Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog said that huge efforts were made by the government and companies like Bharat Biotech, Biological E, Zydus Cadilla and Serum Institute to come up with Indian-made vaccines. Normally, a vaccine development process takes 6-8 years for research and trials, but a path-breaking work has been done in India, he said.
“There were challenges in the health system as it came under a massive pressure when Covid peaked. However, we were successful in sanctioning 1,563 new oxygen generation plants and providing mobile ICU bedded facilities. More than that, major focus was on vaccines,” Kant said.
Dr Krishna Ella, MD of Bharat Biotech International Ltd., said that they looked at only one thing -- safety in adult vaccination. “I looked at our expertise in viral vaccination. Thus, we planned for development of a Covid vaccine, which was meticulously executed,” he said.
Speaking about challenges in the approach of vaccine development technologies, Mahima Datla, MD of Biological E Ltd., said that it was an unprecedented situation. “We were called to action, but at the outset we had three things on mind; first, making an effective vaccine, second, safety standards and finally, making it affordable,” she said.
On this occasion, Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s Chief Scientist, said that it was the first pandemic when this type of genomic sequencing technology was available. “At the time of outbreak, we started activating networks around Research and Development. Thanks to the outbreak and the lessons that were learnt,” he said.
“WHO has set up an R&D blueprint for the epidemics that essentially were listed as priority pathogens, which are likely to cause epidemics and pandemics,” Soumya added.