The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Bharat Biotech International are looking at bringing the messenger RNA platform to India after seeing its successful use in quick development of covid-19 vaccines by US-based Pfizer and Moderna.
“Today, we don’t have any mRNA-based vaccine platform in the country and Dr (Krishna) Ella and us are already talking about how we actually bring it, and Dr Ella is very confident that we can bring this particular platform in the coming few months,” CSIR director general Shekhar C Mande said.
CSIR has earlier developed the molecule TLR 7/8, which was used as an adjuvant for Hyderabad-based vaccine maker’s Covaxin. An adjuvant is a chemical that is added to the drug substance of a vaccine to boost the immune response provided by it.
CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) will be looking at supplying lipid nanoparticles, which are used to stabilise the drug substance for mRNA vaccines, while Bharat Biotech will manufacture the vaccine.
“We will make sure that between CSIR and Bharat Biotech, we get end-to-end solutions for these kind of things,” CSIR-IICT director Srivari Chandrasekhar said.
The announcement comes on a day when Bharat Biotech, Biovet and Sapigen Biologix signed a master collaborative agreement with CSIR-IICT.
Under the agreement, the three companies will provide necessary financial support to CSIR-IICT for developing key raw materials required by the collaborators, and also perform in-vitro and in vivo studies for further development of potential vaccine candidates and bio-therapeutics formulations to be designed by the collaborators. Animal vaccine manufacturer Biovet and biotech research firm Sapigen Biologix are both led by promoters of Bharat Biotech.
