TIGS director Rakesh Mishra says clinical trials showing “excellent results” completed
TIGS director Rakesh Mishra says clinical trials showing “excellent results” completed
The first indigenous drug to treat COVID-19 will soon be made available to the public with the completion of clinical trials, Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS) director Rakesh Mishra said on Friday. Likely to go, which showed “excellent results”.
The product ‘Vincove-19’ is a collaborative effort of CSIR-Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), University of Hyderabad (UoH) and city-based VINS Bioproducts. In this, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is inactivated and injected into horses. Antibodies generated through blood serum are synthesized and purified and converted into a drug, which will then be injected into humans to neutralize the COVID virus.
“It is a kind of sophisticated and scientific plasma therapy, which is similar to the antidote for snake bite,” said the top scientist, former director of CCMB. by CSIR-IICT.
In a very short time, the CCMB and other scientific institutions have met the challenge and developed diagnostic kits, testing facilities, equipment, genomics, working on more than 170 potential drugs and reagents, leading one to wonder “we are seeing these more often”. Why don’t you do it?
The pandemic has shown that the country has to become self-reliant in healthcare and not depend solely on imports. The road map for the development of reagents and testing kits has been successful once the pandemic spreads. The cost of the test has come down by a few thousand rupees and soon it may be available for 15 rupees too, he explained and called for similar efforts in every aspect of healthcare.
Besides wastewater monitoring to see the presence and progression of any infectious disease, zoonotic monitoring is needed because animals are capable of re-infecting humans and “most infectious diseases are transmitted through them”, the director said.
“If we are going to trade wildlife, consume them or destroy nature, bringing it closer, then another pandemic – more deaths due to more dangerous outbreaks – is imminent,” he warned. . “We need to prepare for the next pandemic, which does not take 100 years, by investing more than US$125 billion in healthcare around the world. It is not expensive considering the devastation that has just happened, and we must learn to live in harmony with nature,” he said.
Vaccine development in record time, development of RNA vaccine technology, genomics and precision medicine are optimistic signs. And, how long do they think COVID-19 will last? “We are in an unknown territory from the point of view of understanding the pandemic, how it starts, manifests and how it ends. It also depends on us as the virus cannot transmit on its own,” he said.