- The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology has announced that it has approved additional funding towards clinical studies of India’s ‘first of its kind’ mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine – HGCO19.
- This vaccine has been developed by Pune-based biotechnology company Gennova Biopharmaceuticals
- Gennova, in collaboration with HDT Biotech Corporation, USA, has developed the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine – HGCO19.
- This funding has been awarded under the ‘Mission Covid Suraksha’-
- The Indian Covid-19 Vaccine Development Mission’ by DBT’s dedicated Mission Implementation Unit at Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)
- HGCO19 has already demonstrated safety, immunogenicity, neutralisation antibody activity in the rodent and non-human primate models.
- The vaccine does not contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 disease or even parts of that virus. Instead, the vaccine contains messenger RNA that contains a code for a surface protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the so-called spike protein).
- The vaccine also contains water, salts, sugars and lipids (fats). In the vaccine, the mRNA is placed inside a tiny lipid particle that helps to deliver it to a muscle cell.
- Where does the mRNA contained in the vaccine come from?
- The mRNA contained in the vaccines is produced synthetically in laboratories.
- Have mRNA vaccines been used before? No. Vaccinations based on RNA have been developed since the 1990s, underpinned particularly by the ebola epidemics. Previously, mRNA vaccines have been studied and developed against rabies.
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