IT News
Imphal, April 8
The Hyderabad based “Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL)” a vaccine manufacturing company, has began working on the development and testing “CoroFlu”, a unique intranasal vaccine against “Covid-19”.
“CoroFlu” will be based on FluGen, USA’s flu vaccine known as “M2SR”, which is a self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response against the flu. FluGen’s laboratory will insert gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-10, into M2SR so that the new vaccine will also induce immunity against the pathogen.
BBIL’s Business Development Head Raches Ella, said that “ Bharat Biotech will manufacture the vaccine, conduct clinical trials, and prepare to produce almost 300 million (30 crore) dosages of vaccine for global distribution. Under the collaboration agreement, “FluGen”, USA will transfer its existing manufacturing processes to Bharat Biotech to enable the vaccine for clinical trials.
Refinement of the “CoroFlu” vaccine concept and testing in laboratory animal models at University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA, is expected to take 3-6 months. Bharat Biotech, will then begin production scale-up for safety and efficacy testing in humans. “CoroFlu” could be in human clinical trials by end of current year.