Covaxin can offer protection against mutated coronavirus: Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech said on Tuesday that its vaccine candidate -Covaxin - can offer protection against mutations of coronavirus. Bharat Biotech Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella said the protein components of inactive Covaxin will take care of mutations.

His comments came amid growing concerns over new strains of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, especially the variant that was detected recently in the UK.

The presence of the new UK variant of the coronavirus has already been reported by Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore so far.

Krishna Ella, who was delivering a lecture organised by the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, observed that any virus is expected to have a lot of mutation.

"It (coronavirus) is expected to have a lot of mutation and you can be rest assured this vaccine will also protect against that (mutated) virus because of two hypotheses...

"So you have these two components in the inactivated vaccine. It will also take care of those mutations," Ella said during a virtual programme.

Ella said mutation was not unexpected and the virus mutates on its own to reach more people as it is a non-living organism.

Vaccine makers like Pfizer and AstraZeneca have also said that their vaccines against Covid-19 should work against the new strain.

However, the results of any tests proving the efficacy of these vaccines against the new strain have not come out.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is developing Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). It has completed phase 1 and 2 clinical trials. The phase 3 efficacy trials of Covaxin are in progress with 20,000 volunteers, Ella said.

He also said the company has approached regulatory authorities seeking approval for an emergency license to use the vaccine.

The leading vaccine maker is also developing a single-dose nasal vaccine for Covid-19.

Six people who returned to India from the UK have tested positive for the new mutated strain of coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

In his lecture on "Innovation in Public Health - Our Journey," Ella said there were 40,000 unknown viruses and 10,000 zoonotic viruses and there was a need to focus on neglected and unknown diseases that could become global pandemics in the future.

India currently has eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including three indigenous vaccines, under different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorisation in near future.

Serum Institute-Oxford's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Pfizer vaccine are in the fray for emergency use authorisation.

(With agency inputs)