CCI eases rules on competitor collaborations to deal with COVID-19 crisis

CCI has, however, warned all businesses looking to make collaborative arrangements to not exploit the crisis situation for violating any provisions of the Competition Act.

Moneycontrol News

April 21, 2020 / 14:10 IST

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In view of the coronavirus crisis, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has allowed businesses to collaborate, assuring that sanctions would not be imposed on them under the anti-trust laws for such activities, reported the Business Line.

The CCI advisory has clarified that this announcement complies with the Competition Act, 2002, which safeguards businesses from sanctions for specific coordinated activities that result in increasing their efficiency.

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It has warned all businesses looking to make collaborative arrangements to not exploit the crisis situation for violating any provisions of the Competition Act,

The advisory further stated: “These provisions will inform the decisions of the Commission. However, only such conduct of businesses which is necessary and proportionate to address concerns arising from COVID-19 will be considered.”

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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