CSIR collaborates with Aurobindo Pharma to develop Covid-19 vaccines

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Aurobindo Pharma Limited on Tuesday announced a collaboration to develop vaccines for COVID-19.

As per the release issued by the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), under the signed agreement between CSIR- CCMB and Aurobindo Pharma, Aurobindo will partner with CSIR for the development of several novel COVID-19 vaccines.

"Three CSIR labs namely CCMB Hyderabad, Institute of Medical Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata are developing vaccine candidates using different technology platforms. Aurobindo will undertake clinical development and commercialization of the vaccines," it said.

Commenting on this partnership, Dr Shekhar C Mande, Director General, CSIR, said that "Joining of hands of premier CSIR labs with industry for the development of vaccines will amplify India's efforts in indigenous vaccine development and also help in preparedness for future pandemics".

Dr. Rakesh Mishra, Director, CSIR-CCMB, while talking about the development strategies for the vaccines said, "Our labs are working on novel proteins for vaccine development that has the potential to address the need for a second-generation vaccine. We are happy to partner with Aurobindo who have proven manufacturing and commercialization capabilities."

Aurobindo Pharma Limited also expresses pride over the collaboration with CSIR for developing vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and said that is already setting up a large-scale facility in Hyderabad for manufacturing the vaccine.

"We are proud to join hands with CSIR for developing vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaboration further strengthens our COVID-19 vaccine development efforts. We are already setting up a large-scale facility in Hyderabad for manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine and other viral vaccines," said N. Govindarajan, Managing Director, Aurobindo Pharma Limited.

The release said that apart from this collaboration, Aurobindo is already developing a vaccine for COVID-19 (SARS COV-2) through its wholly-owned US subsidiary Auro Vaccines.

"The SARS COV-2 vaccine candidate is based on the company's proprietary replication-competent, attenuated, recombinant vesicular stomatitis (VSV, VesiculoVax™) vaccine delivery platform," it added.