| New Delhi : IIT Alumni Council announces plan to manufacture 200 million doses per month of indigenous fourth generation vaccine which will compete directly with global players in world market. Existing indigenous capacity will be adequate to meet world demand after repurposing and addition of balancing equipment. New cold chain infrastructure to be speed developed to handle requirements for nationwide delivery of the vaccine. |
| “IIT alumni council has taken up the challenge of developing and distributing an indigenous fourth generation vaccine for Covid 19. We have received enormous support from eminent indian scientists and academicians of global repute, leading industry players including contract manufacturers & clinical trial experts, global equipment suppliers & design firms and startup’s engaged across the supply chain. We are very hopeful of catalysing the availability of a fourth generation vaccine at much reduced prices. We also expect to backward integrate quickly so as to create a robust foundation for RNA based prophylactics and therapeutics for a wide range of diseases. This will strongly complement our Biologics work in the area of monoclonal antibodies” said Ravi Sharma, President of the IIT Alumni Council. |
| “We have been through the cost reduction and feature enhancement cycle in molecular diagnostics. Simple innovations like pool testing and lyophilisation helped drive down costs and eliminate wastage. Self-amplifying vaccines use the vaccine as a seed for the human body to produce the vaccine itself. This allows for a mRNA type vial of vaccine to be enough for hundred people instead of ten people. This reduces cost by 90%. Our MegaLab antibody initiative has been working on human harvesting and in-body amplification of injected material for over a year now. Our expertise in self amplification is fairly mature now,” added Sanjay Nagi, Project Director of the India Vaccine Stack. |