BENGALURU: While India is waging a virtual bio-war against the Covid virus, and positive cases are inching close to the 1-lakh mark, there is a critical hitch in India’s response so far: Dozens of private research and testing facilities, raring to work on understanding genetic sequencing and mutation patterns, are complaining that they are not able to procure the relevant viral genetic material (RNA/c-DNA) for the purpose of research. Understanding the virus better could help develop testing kits, vaccines or even pharmaceutical anti-virals, say researchers.
Dr Kunal Sharma, head of pathology and member of the Karnataka Covid Consultative Committee, and who is among those credited for starting fever clinics, expressed this frustration. “It is more than two-and-half months since the Covid crisis is upon us, and many countries have been able to do better than us simply because of better synergy. Here, there are too many unnecessary restrictions. It is common knowledge that the viral genetic material, once extracted, poses no risk of transmission of the disease. It should be shared widely with appropriate research facilities as it cannot infect anyone, yet there are restrictions that this cannot be shared among research labs. We have lost a lot of precious time grappling with these restrictions.’’
Here is a sample of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) official rules: “Kindly note that no sharing of sample with any organisation, no amplification of the virus in any cell culture and no sequencing of viral genome from any sample is to be done by any lab.’’ Dr Prabhu Meghanathan, head, surgical pathology, Hybrinomics Life Sciences, explained, “These guidelines come as a major hurdle in necessary scientific research to beat this pandemic. A better solution would be for governments to give approval to research facilities which meet government standards, to use genetic material for research on prevention or a cure. We are a research laboratory that would like to work on Covid-19. If the government places restrictions, research will be delayed.’’
Advocate KV Dhananjay, who practices in the Supreme Court and has been waging a battle to enable India fight Covid better, said, “Mindless restrictions do not help anybody. While tiny nations like Israel and South Korea are doing a lot to fight Covid, our nation isn’t doing much, though it has great potential. I am pained by the attitude of the bureaucracy, I have written to the ICMR and government of India asking for unnecessary restrictions to be removed so that research can be better directed to fight Covid.’’ If genetic data about the virus is available, researchers can work on producing cheaper testing kits, vaccines or medicines. DyCM C N Ashwath Narayan said, “We understand this issue and are aware of it. We will appoint a nodal officer to work with the Centre and labs, to help facilitate better flow of information.’’