NEW DELHI: India’s first homemade mRNA (messenger RNA) Covid vaccine is currently under the final stage of clinical trials, Covid-19 Task Force head and Niti Aayog member Dr. V K Paul said Thursday, February 10, 2021.
Briefing the media, he said: “India’s first homegrown Messenger RNA Covid vaccine being developed by Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals is currently under final clinical trials, and we hope that we will be able to use it someday.”
The mRNA Covid vaccine is also being developed for the Omicron variant, which drives the current third Covid wave, and will soon be tested on humans for efficacy and immunogenicity.
Dr. Paul said the company plans to give it “intradermal instead of intramuscular. It is a tremendous advantage and very innovative.”
“We need the mRNA platform because it is a new platform. It has been shown that the vaccine developed on this platform for Corona has been effective worldwide. Having an India vaccine and vaccine platform available is an asset today in the wake of Covid and Omicron,” he said.
“But tomorrow also beyond Covid for other diseases for which the vaccines have eluded us..it could be malaria, TB, dengue so many diseases for which we are still hunting for an affordable, effective, lasting vaccine, it could be helpful,” he said.
He also added that the advantage of the vaccine is that it can be kept in normal cold state conditions, and it can survive, stored, and be transported as compared to other vaccines in which arrangements have to be made to keep it in sub-zero conditions.