COVID-19 Kills 1,700 People Globally A Week

WHO has urged people at risk to keep up with their vaccinations with boosters.

IMAGE: A healthcare worker administers a dose of iNCOVACC, an intranasal vaccine as a booster dose for a senior citizen against COVID-19 in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Indian Immunologicals Limited on Tuesday, August 27 2024, said it has developed a live-attenuated needle-free intra-nasal booster vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

The vaccine has been developed in collaboration with Griffith University, Australia.

IIL's vaccine is made using codon deoptimisation technology and this work has already been published in Nature Communications on August 26.

Codon deoptimisation is considered highly efficient as a virus attenuation strategy and is also considered safe and less time-consuming than the conventional way which usually takes several years.

IMAGE: January 2023: When then health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Science Dr Jitendra Singh, Bharat Biotech Executive Chairman Dr Krishna Ella, Bharat Biotech Co-Founder and MD Suchitra Ella and others launched the world's first made in India COVID-19 nasal vaccine, iNCOVACC, in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI Photo

'Completely guided attenuation and the means are well known, and the attenuated virus is expected to present all the antigens and mimics natural infection,' the company claimed.

'Among different formats of vaccines available, it is well known that live attenuated vaccines generate a robust and broad-spectrum neutralising antibody response,' IIL said, adding that its needle-free nasal booster vaccine has demonstrated stability and maintained safety in extensive animal studies.

In 2022, Bharat Biotech had developed an intranasal vaccine approved as a mix-and match (heterologous) booster dose -- iNCOVACC.

IIL said that the danger due to COVID-19 infection is not over. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus is still killing around 1,700 people a week around the world.

WHO has urged people at risk to keep up with their vaccinations with boosters.

The then Union health minister had launched this vaccine in January 2023. It is a recombinant adenovirus (flu virus) vectored vaccine that has been formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops.

K Anand Kumar, managing director, IIL said, "This accomplishment signifies a major step forward in our battle against COVID-19.

"We are enthusiastic about the codon de-optimisation technology, and its use in targeted attenuation of microorganisms to be used as vaccine candidate."

The vaccine, Kumar added, would facilitate non-invasive immunisation, and that they aim to enhance vaccination rates, ultimately safeguarding more individuals and communities.

IIL was set up by the National Dairy Development Board in 1982. It has multiple GMP manufacturing sites and exports to over 60 countries.

IIL has launched several animal and human vaccines in the Indian market and is now working actively on a dengue vaccine, which it aims to bring to market by 2026.

COVID-19 cases are rising across the world. In mid-August, WHO said that Sars-CoV-2 positivity rate during the four-week reporting period from June 24 to July 21 increased from 7.4 per cent in the beginning week to 13 per cent in the last, across 85 countries.

Globally, JN.1 is the most reported variant of interest (VOI), now reported by 135 countries.

BBIL Launches Oral Cholera Vaccine

Anjali Singh

IMAGE: Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes.
A child gets an oral cholera vaccine. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

Bharat Biotech International (BBIL) has launched a new oral cholera vaccine (OCV), aiming to offer a solution to the global shortage of OCVs amid rising cases of the disease globally.

The vaccine, HILLCHOL, is developed in partnership with Hilleman Laboratories, a Singapore-based vaccine research organisation.

The introduction of HILLCHOL comes as cholera cases and deaths have been on the rise across the world.

Despite being preventable and treatable, cholera cases and deaths have been increasing steadily since 2021.

From early 2023 to March this year, 824,479 cases and 5,900 deaths were reported across 31 countries.

With only one manufacturer currently supplying OCVs worldwide, there has been a deficit of approximately 40 million doses annually.

Bharat Biotech's new vaccine is set to address this shortfall, with its manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar, capable of producing up to 200 million doses.

HILLCHOL, administered orally on Day 0 and Day 14, is suitable for individuals over one year of age.

It is available as a single-dose respule and must be stored between +2 C and +8 C. The vaccine is offered in a mono-multidose format.

Vaccines provide the best intervention to prevent, limit, and control cholera outbreaks.

"HILLCHOL is a success story of partnership leading to public health solutions. Our new manufacturing facilities will significantly enhance our production capacity, enabling us to combat cholera globally," Krishna Ella, executive chairman of Bharat Biotech, said.

The launch of HILLCHOL aligns with the Global Task Force on Cholera Control's goal of reducing cholera-related deaths by 90 per cent by 2030.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com