Hyderabad: Vaccine Capital of the World

By Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, December 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) In the darkness caused by COVID-19, one sector that provided the light of hope was life sciences, turning challenges into opportunities. Hyderabad has strengthened its position as a global force in the pharmaceutical world. ..

Already recognized as a global information technology destination, this southern city has proven its prowess in the fields of medicine and biotechnology and has emerged as the world’s vaccine capital.

Already known as India’s drug substance capital, Hyderabad has witnessed the production of life-saving COVID-19 drugs such as remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine and favipiravir by several top pharmaceutical companies based here.

This was followed by a busy effort in the city to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, Hyderabad has emerged as the center of all domestic research and development activities for the COVID-19 vaccine and is receiving international attention.

Today, almost all vaccines being developed domestically for pandemics are connected to Hyderabad.

Four of the six companies developing COVID vaccines in India are based in Hyderabad. Bharat Biotech is currently conducting Phase III clinical trials of Covaxin, India’s first unique COVID-19 vaccine.

Covaxin is being developed in collaboration with the Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR) -National Institute of Virology (NIV). This unique inactivated vaccine is being developed and manufactured at Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Biosafety Level 3) biocontainment facility here in the Genome Valley.

According to Bharat Biotech, covaxin has been evaluated in approximately 1,000 subjects in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, with expected safety and immunogenicity results.

Phase III human clinical trials of the vaccine began in November and attracted 26,000 volunteers across India. This is India’s first and only Phase III efficacy study for the COVID-19 vaccine and the largest Phase III efficacy study ever conducted for the Indian vaccine.

“Covaxin is attracting attention from several countries around the world for supply and deployment,” said Suchitra Ella, co-managing director of Bharat Biotech.

In April, Bharat Biotech announced the development of CoroFlu, an intranasal vaccine for the coronavirus. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the vaccine company FluGen have begun developing and testing CoroFlu with Bharat Biotech. Based in Hyderabad, the company will produce about 300 million doses of vaccine for worldwide distribution.

In May, Bharat Biotech and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia signed an exclusive agreement to develop a new vaccine candidate for COVID-19 invented by Jefferson. The new vaccine was developed using the existing inactivated rabies vaccine as a vehicle for coronavirus proteins.

Bharat Biotech claims to have an outstanding track record of innovation with over 140 global patents, an extensive product portfolio of over 16 vaccines, four biotherapies, registrations in over 116 countries, and WHO pre-qualifications. did.

So far, the company has developed H1N1, rotavirus, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, chikungunya fever, Zika fever, and the world’s first typhoid vaccine. We have provided more than 4 billion vaccines worldwide. It is also the world’s largest rabies vaccine manufacturer.

Another city-based company, Biological E, began clinical trials of a candidate COVID-19 subunit vaccine in India last month with approval from India’s Drug Controller General (DCGI).

BE collaborates with Dynavax Technologies Corporation (Dynavax), a US-based biopharmacy company focused on vaccines, and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston’s Health Science University.

Biological E has also signed a contract with Johnson & Johnson to manufacture the latter vaccine at a vaccine manufacturing facility, sell it in India, and export it to various global markets.

Indian Immunologicals, a human and animal vaccine maker, is also developing a COVID vaccine.

Hyderabad-based Parma’s leading doctor, Reddies Laboratories, is conducting clinical trials of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine. Russian sovereign wealth fund Sputnik V.

Hyderabad has been in the limelight with the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ambassadors from more than 60 countries to the Bharat Biotechnology and Biological E facilities in the Genome Valley.

Telangana’s Minister of Industry, KT Ramarao, believes that Hyderabad has solidified its position as the world’s vaccine capital.

He pointed out that Hyderabad already produces more than 2 billion vaccines each year. This is one-third of the world’s vaccine production.

With its strong ecosystem, the city has played an important role not only in making India self-sufficient in pharmaceutical manufacturing, but also in transforming it into the world’s pharmacy capital. It accounts for 40% of all bulk medicines in India and 50% of bulk medicine exports.

Industry leaders believe that Hyderabad will be an integral part of the global effort to immunize COVID worldwide.

Even if no vaccine has been developed in the city, the city has the capacity to produce vaccines and will play a major role in global vaccination efforts.

Hyderabad has the largest vaccine facility approved by the US FDA. They have the ability to produce millions of doses to world-class standards.

“The Indian vaccine sector plays an important role in the development and manufacture of large-scale vaccines for worldwide distribution. Hyderabad is becoming more and more important in the global vaccine industry,” said KT Lamarao. Says.

The Telangana Government has assured companies that it will play a role in enabling global immunization efforts against COVID-19.

Hyderabad Airport announced a few days ago that it had developed the infrastructure needed to handle its exports.

According to industry insights, most of India’s vaccine exports are destined for destinations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Hyderabad already has more than 800 life sciences companies and employs more than 120,000 pharmaceutical professionals in this sector.

It is said to be the only city in the country with more than 20 incubation centers focused exclusively on life sciences and health technology. More than 200 start-ups are also working on innovative healthcare solutions.

Genome Valley is India’s first organized cluster for life sciences R & D activities spanning 600 square kilometers. Founded in 1999, it features world-class infrastructure facilities in the form of an industrial / knowledge park, special economic zone (SEZ), multi-tenant dry and wet labs and incubation facilities.

There are more than 200 companies, including the presence of marquee global companies such as Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia and Lonza.

Hyderabad Pharmacity is also likely to be up and running soon, so the city aims to increase production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and develop clusters to help the country compete with China.

The new project is expected to create 170,000 direct and 560,000 indirect jobs.

Source: IANS

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