New Delhi: To accelerate the process of developing and manufacturing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in India that can be easily accessible and affordable for the public, a ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’ has been proposed to be set up with a corpus of nearly Rs 3,000 crore, sources said. The ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’ is being piloted by the Department of Biotechnology. The proposed mission will focus on end-to-end vaccine development from clinical trial stage to regulatory facilitation to manufacturing, the sources added.
The aim of the mission is to accelerate the development of at least six vaccine candidates. Then it has to be ensured that they are licensed and introduced in market for emergency use at the earliest, they said.
While there is no official word on the proposed mission as yet, multiple officials confirmed that a proposal has been made. A senior official said ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’ is still in ‘a proposal stage”.
According to the draft proposal, the mission has been proposed to have a timeline of 12-18 months. The budget will approximately be Rs 3,000 crore.
The mission will also look to ensure that sufficient volumes are manufactured to meet India’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement. Also it will introduce it in public health systems of the Ministry of Health post the approval by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), to combat further spread of COVID-19 infection.
While several efforts already underway have helped in quickly putting together best groups and for encouraging them to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccine development, it is now imperative that the vaccine development and manufacturing is taken up ‘in a mission mode and not in a project mode”, the draft proposal said.
“Efforts till now for a vaccine development have been fragmented,” the draft proposal noted. “Therefore, to ensure a steady supply of vaccines in the next 12-15 months, there is a need to establish a mission. It will help in end-to end focus from pre-clinical development through clinical trials, manufacturing and scale-up development of the prioritised vaccine candidates that would consolidate all available and funded resources towards a warpath for accelerated product development,” it said.
Accordingly, it is proposed to launch the Indian COVID-19 vaccine development programme – ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’, it said.
According to the draft, the national mission will work towards bringing to the citizens of India a safe, efficacious, affordable and accessible COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest with a focus on ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ and also fulfil the commitment of serving not just the country but the entire globe.
The mission will also support multiple vaccine candidates in the pipeline to increase the probability of a successful vaccine entering the market, pre-planning to avoid bottlenecks and delays and ensuring safety and efficacy is not compromised during acceleration.
The government has been ramping up efforts to manufacture a vaccine to combat the deadly infection that has so far infected over 31 lakh people and claimed the lives of over 55,000 people in the country.
India has nearly 30 vaccine candidates at different stages of vaccine development for coronavirus.
PTI