Thread by @alan27808766

1)India’s Covaxin may not be Indian enough, or worse!
Bharat Biotech (BB) announced that it had developed a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, named Covaxin, together with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and
#BharatBiotech #Covaxin
science.thewire.in/health/how-ind…

2)National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.The company had also received permission from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to begin human trials.
ICMR transferred the strain NIV had isolated to Biotech Bharat on May 9.
#NationalInstituteofVirology

3)The company published its press release on June 29. There were only 50 days in between, during which the company would have developed the inactivated vaccine, conducted pre clinical animal trials (with mice and hamsters),
ndtv.com/india-news/cor…

4) and sent its reports to be evaluated and approved by DCGI. Although ICMR had promised to expedite the process, animal trials with mice typically take at least three months to conclude!
#DCGI

5)Bharat Biotech’s Krishna Ella said on April 7: “It will take at least three months to do animal trials to establish the safety properly.” A related issue is that animal trials for COVID-19 can only be conducted with hACE2 transgenic mice,

6) as ‘normal’ mice can’t get infected with the novel coronavirus. These mice need to be shipped from the US, Europe or China, which Ella had also acknowledged.

sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/s…

7)These issues therefore raise concerns about whether Bharat Biotech could really have proceeded to the human-trials phase of vaccine development within only 50 days of receiving the inactivated virus from NIV.

deccanchronicle.com/science/scienc…

8)On April 7, 2020, Jefferson Vaccine Centre, Pennsylvania (JVC) announced a vaccine candidate named Coravax. On May 20, 2020, Bharat Biotech announced its collaboration with JVC. Covaxin may be Coravax by another name and by another viral strain.
#JeffersonVaccineCentre

9)Even if the vaccine is wholly indigenous, the timelines for the animal trials don’t line up!There are 11 different strains of the virus in India.Which inactive strain will be used and whether that particular strain will create antibodies for all the other existing strains.

10)AstraZeneca (AZ) sought merger talks with Foster City based Gilead and now its CEO, Pascal Soriot on CSL, board; an eventual merger/takeover imminent? Covid vaccine producers consolidating markets even before a viable vaccine is out!
theage.com.au/business/compa… via @theage

11)means covid vaccine will be big business and big pharma will dictate government/public policy across continents. Anti-trust/competition laws will not be able to stop this with the public being an inconvenient tax paying footnote!