NEW DELHI: India’s premier R&D body - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - has decided to repurpose an approved immunomodulator to enhance innate immunity of the body to limit the spread of COVID-19 and fasten the recovery of infected patients.The immunomodulator, Sepsivac, is expected to protect the close contacts of COVID-19 patients and health care staff by boosting their innate response and thereby preventing them from acquiring the disease.Besides, it is also expected to help in quicker recovery of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, who are not critically ill. The CSIR, however, needs to do clinical trials to test the efficacy of the immunomodulator for both these purposes.“Both these new clinical trials are now approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI),” said the science & technology ministry in a statement.It said, “These two clinical trials are in addition to the recently announced trial on evaluating the efficacy of the drug for reducing mortality (deaths) in critically ill COVID-19 patient.The move to enhance such “natural defense” comes at a time when the world is working towards developing vaccines and antiviral agents for fighting COVID-19.The ministry in its statement explained that the natural defense mechanism of the body (innate immunity) plays a key role in the fight against COVID-19 and other viral infections.“It is a fast, first and efficient immune response for identifying and eliminating COVID-19 and other viruses,” claimed the ministry, explaining that the majority of persons coming in contact with COVID-19 or other viruses either do not get the disease or get a milder form of the self-limiting disease as Innate immunity is adequate.It said, “The Sepsivac contains heat-killed Mycobacterium W (Mw). It is found to be extremely safe in patients and no systemic side effects are associated with its use.”The Sepsivac was developed under the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) programme of the CSIR to save lives of critically ill patients suffering from Gram-negative sepsis. It is currently being manufactured by Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd ., Ahmedabad.“Looking at similarities between clinical characteristics of patients suffering from COVID-19 and Gram-negative sepsis, the CSIR has now decided to repurpose the approved immunomodulator and will do clinical trials at multiple hospitals to evaluate the efficacy of the drug for reducing mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients, quicker recovery of infected patients by preventing progression of disease and minimise the spread of disease through them to health care workers and family members,” said a CSIR scientist.The scientist said, “The results of all these trials will come in a few months. Final use of the immunomodulator will depend on the results of those trials and subsequent approval by the regulator.”