Indian Corona Vaccine : Indian vaccines don’t need temperature as low as Pfizer’s , AIIMS Director
By Sumit Saxena
New Delhi, Nov 11 : Indian vaccines offer lot of hope, due to various factors including a good safety signal, display of immunogenicity and capability of using the current storage infrastructure, said AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria in an exclusive interview with IANS.
Recently, drug company Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate for Covid-19 is more than 90 per cent effective at preventing infection. This was welcomed as a major step in the fight against the virus, which has unleashed havoc on the global economy.
Guleria added that the Indian Covid-19 vaccine has a huge advantage over the Pfizer vaccine, which is required to be kept at a much lower temperature, and hence, cold storage for other vaccines can be used for the Indian vaccine too.
Q: We have not seen any major issue with Indian vaccines at the trials stage, are you satisfied with progress made so far?
Q: Drug company Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate for Covid-19 is more than 90 per cent effective at preventing infection. Are Indian vaccines on a better footing than Pfizer?
A: What Pfizer has got is something very encouraging for other vaccines researchers also, because that shows there is a potential of good immunity by the vaccines. Therefore, other vaccines should also do well. Therefore, it is a big news for all vaccine developers. We can hope for a 90 per cent efficacy.
The Indian vaccines are going to be kept at a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius and this is available for most vaccines. As most vaccines a have cold storage facility, these can be used for this vaccine also. Therefore, the investment is not much. If we were to use a vaccine which require storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius, then one would require whole new cold chain development. I do not see that happening in lot of countries.
A: We would like to have as much efficacy as one can. The WHO says if any vaccine has more than 50 per cent efficacy, it is good enough. We would definitely like to have an efficacy of 80-90 per cent. So, let us hope that is what we are able to achieve.