COVID-19 crisis | Transfer Covaxin know-how to interested firms, Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy tells PM Modi

The CM said that the average count of cases per day in state over the last seven days stood at 20,300 and as of May 11, the state had 1,86,695 active cases.

Moneycontrol News

May 11, 2021 / 18:56 IST

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requested him to direct Bharat Biotech to transfer manufacturing technology of COVAXIN and ICMR-NIV to provide viral strain to interested firms and enable them with technology and intellectual property rights.

"Considering that the Covaxin manufacturing is intended to be ramped up, we would request you to please direct Bharat Biotech to do the technology transfer of the manufacturing of Covaxin and ICMR-NIV to provide the viral strain to whoever interested and capable of manufacturing the vaccine," Reddy wrote in the letter.

Bharat Biotech commences direct supply of 'Covaxin' to 14 states

Further, the AP CM requested the prime minister to explore the possibility of involving all such production firms and enable them with the technology, IPR etc., to deliver the vaccine as quickly and as affordable as possible.

Reddy was of the opinion that entire manufacturing capacity should be mobilised and put to use in amid the rise in COVID-19 cases. This would encourage and accelerate the supply of vaccines to be made available to the production at large.

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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COVID-19 crisis | Transfer Covaxin know-how to interested firms, Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy tells PM Modi

The CM said that the average count of cases per day in state over the last seven days stood at 20,300 and as of May 11, the state had 1,86,695 active cases.

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COVID-19 crisis | Transfer Covaxin know-how to interested firms, Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy tells PM Modi

The CM said that the average count of cases per day in state over the last seven days stood at 20,300 and as of May 11, the state had 1,86,695 active cases.

Related stories

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