Thread by @Neurophysik

India’s 'first' indigenous COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN, developed by @BharatBiotech with @ICMRDELHI & NIV , approved for human clinical trials from the DCGI. The Phase I + II clinical trials to start next month after pre-clinical studies demonstrated safety & immune response. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Update: The @BharatBiotech vaccine (called covaxin) was developed & tested in collaboration with University of Wisconsin & vaccine company FluGen. It is delivered intranasally & has completed Phase II trials in the USA. Bharat will manufacture clinical lots of the vaccine. 1/3

The new @BharatBiotech vaccine will be based on an influenza virus where gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2 are inserted into M2SR- vaccine platform (M2-ion channel protein Deficient Single Replication). 2/3

Information from a short communications in ‘vaccine’ journal co-authored by @BharatBiotech rep.
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Despite ICMR & NIV claiming indigenous development, this June article suggests development and testing in collab with Wisconsin Uni & Flugen researchers. 3/3

I would hold the horses, before reviewing the research collaborations. If others have contributed and tested the vaccine before Indian Pharma & institutes, can it really be labelled indigenous?

Update 2: press release 20th May by @BharatBiotech
“Global Leader and vaccine innovator Bharat Biotech and Thomas Jefferson University of Philadelphia have signed an exclusive deal to develop a new vaccine candidate for COVID-19 invented at Jefferson” 1/3
bharatbiotech.com/images/press/B…

“The novel vaccine was developed using an existing deactivated rabies vaccine as a vehicle for coronavirus proteins. This is in part be- cause this vehicle or carrier vaccine is known to produce a strong immune response, and is approved for the entire population” 2/3

“Infectious Diseases expert Professor Matthias Schnell’s lab developed the vaccine in January 2020 & has recently completed preliminary tests showing antibody response in animal models (mice) with results next month” 3/3
Is this another vaccine @BharatBiotech is working on?

* covaxin could be a different one than coroflu (developed with flugen and Uni of Wisconsin)

Two different studies 👇🏼

https://twitter.com/neurophysik/status/1277858731502510081?s=21

https://twitter.com/neurophysik/status/1277858731502510081

Update 3: Could not find any published preclinical study on vaccine by @BharatBiotech, ICMR or NIV.
If the virus was isolated locally & antibody response was observed with protection against sars-cov2, there should be a published dataset before human approval. Link if anyone does

Update 4: I contact the PR team of @BharatBiotech to gain more understanding of the preclinical research on which the novel indigenous COVID vaccine is approved for trials.
Response: in the pic attached

Opinion: Even though Bharat biotech may be a private inc., ICMR is public and funded by tax payers. Is research funded by tax payers kept undisclosed to the public a good strategy especially when the speed of new research is critical?

@AnantBhan @d_s_thakur @netshrink @paimadhu