The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Hyderabad-based, Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL), have come together for developing a COVID-19 vaccine, the ICMR announced on Saturday.
For research purposes, the virus strain has been transferred from National Institute of Virology in Pune to BBIL.
This is the third initiative announced by BBIL towards finding a vaccine for COVID-19.
Earlier on April 20, the Department of Biotechnology offered funding support to develop a vaccine using inactive rabies vector. The company also was working on a one-drop COVID-19 nasal vaccine called ‘CoroFlu’ that was built on a flu vaccine called ‘backbone’ which had been considered safe for humans. To develop ‘CoroFlu’, BBIL had been a part of an international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Flugen, a vaccine manufacturing company.