IIT Guwahati collaborates with Hester Biosciences to develop COVID-19 vaccine

Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical firm Hester Biosciences on Wednesday said it has collaborated with Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

The agreement between the two organisations was signed on April 15, 2020.

The vaccine will be based on recombinant avian paramyxovirus-based vector platform, the company said.

The recombinant avian paramyxovirus-1 will be used to express the immunogenic protein of SARS-CoV-2, which could then be used as a vaccine candidate for further study.

The role of the institute is to produce the recombinant vaccine candidate.

IITG and Hester have collaborated to develop and manufacture a recombinant vaccine against COVID-19 disease as a preventive measure. Hester's involvement would be from master seed development up to release of the commercial vaccine," Rajiv Gandhi, CEO and MD, Hester Biosciences said.

Head of the research team Sachin Kumar, who is Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Guwahati, said It is too early to comment on the efficacy and immunogenicity of the vaccine, however, we will be able to reveal more details about this vaccine after the results of animal studies are obtained.