P. Sarojini
Hyderabad, India (CWBN)_ A team of 64 ambassadors and high commissioners from different countries visited the two main biotech firms in Hyderabad that are manufacturing coronavirus vaccines. The delegates first visited Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech company and then Biological E.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava took to Twitter to share this message. He tweeted, “In a first, a visit of more than 60 Heads of Missions was arranged to the research and manufacturing facilities of the leading biotechnology companies, Bharat Biotech and Biological E, in Hyderabad”. In November, the Foreign Ministry explained some issues relevant to Covid to more than 190 heads of diplomatic missions and delegates of leading international organizations.
On Monday, Bharat Biotech that manufactures India’s first domestic vaccine candidate, Covaxin, with Indian Medical Research Council applied for approval of its vaccine. Bharat Biotech is the third drug manufacturer to apply for its Covid vaccine to be approved by the government.
According to the news report, the chairman and managing director of the Bharat Biotech, Dr Krishna Ella, gave a presentation to international heads of the mission on various features of the development of vaccines in India. The delegates were informed that 33 percent of global vaccines are manufactured in the Hyderabad Genome Valley.
Biological E. Ltd announced in November that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has begun human clinical trials and that results are expected in February 2021. Following the green signal from the Drugs Controller General of India, the drug manufacturer started phase I and phase II trials of its vaccine candidate, which is produced with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and US-based Dynavax Technologies Corp.
This visit of the foreign delegates to the pharmaceutical industries is the second VIP visit after Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured India’s top vaccine centers in three cities on 28 November to study the manufacturing of the coronavirus vaccine and the production process.
