Experts inform Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a meeting of the task force, that in India over 30 vaccines against the COVID-19 are in different stages of development and a few are going for the trials. Meanwhile, existing drugs are being used for treating COVID patients.
The PM chaired the meeting of the task force on May 5, in order to take a detailed review on the current status of the country’s initiatives for developing the Coronavirus vaccine, drug discovery, diagnosis and testing.
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Following the meeting, a press statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office mentioned about three approaches that being taken in developing a drug for the COVID-19 in India. As per the statement, the first approach is the repurposing of existing drugs. At least four drugs are being synthesised and examined in this approach. Whereas, the second approach is in the direction to develop new candidate drugs and molecules which are being driven by linking high performance computational approached with laboratory verification. And, the third approach looks at using plant extracts and products for general anti-viral properties. The examination of various extracts and product is being carried, the statement added.
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Moreover, there are several academic research institutions and start-ups that have developed new tests, both for the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) approach and for antibody detection, in diagnosis and testing. The capacity for both of these tests has been enormously scaled up by linking laboratories across the country.
