Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has joined the race to develop a vaccine against novel Coronavirus (REUTERS)

Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has joined the race to develop a vaccine against novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and announced on Wednesday that they have a candidate, for which animal trials have begun.

The vaccine may be tested on humans as early as six months, pending approval from regulatory agencies, said SII, the world’s biggest vaccine-manufacturer by volume. The SII project is likely cost Rs 300 crore.

The SII vaccine candidate was developed in collaboration with a US biotechnology company, Codagenix, which uses viral sequencing data to develop a weakened virus to develop immunity against a disease, according to its website.

“The vaccine candidate has been developed using a laboratory-made synthetic virus, which is a key breakthrough as it will significantly reduce the time taken to build a vaccine against the virus. We hope to be ready with the vaccine by early 2022,” said Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer, SII.

“We are in talks with a number of companies across the globe for potential partnerships. We are also not excluding China as a potential site for our clinical trials. By end-August, we will have data on mice and primates to submit to regulatory authorities to enter into the human trials phase,” he said.

As per the norms the conduct the trials in India, SII will have to submit the data to the national drug regulator, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

“The subject expert committee will review after SII submits the data generated from animal trials,” said a CDSCO official on condition of anonymity.

Sanofi Pastuer, which has collaborated with US Department of Health to repurpose its vaccine candidate developed during the 2002 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak, is among the other pharmaceutical firms working on a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) through the international group, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, has invited proposals for vaccine development of COVID-19. “A couple of groups from India have submitted their proposals. If their proposals are selected, we will be able to provide them all kinds of support,” said Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, DBT.

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