Possible to make new Covid strain vax in 100 days: Gennova BioPharma

Co gets nod for Omicron booster of its mRNA vaccine

Pune-based Gennova BioPharmaceuticals, which developed the country’s first mRNA vaccine and has now obtained approval for a mix-and-match booster dose based on the Omicron strain of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, says it can make a new vaccine based on an emerging strain within 100-days, if need be.

Speaking to the media, Sanjay Singh, CEO, Gennova said the firm was in discussions with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) on the matter. “Developing a vaccine on any new strain within 100 days is feasible, and globally such discussions are on. We are also in discussions with CEPI on this matter. Whether one should develop vaccines on future strains will depend on the infectiousness of the emerging strains,” he added. The WHO, for example, announces the dominant strains for influenza every year, based on which, vaccines (flu shots) are modified.

Rajesh S Gokhale, Secretary, DBT, and Chairperson, BIRAC said “This is a disease-agnostic platform and can be used to make other vaccines in a relatively short developmental timeline.”

CEPI is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance research projects which are no longer independent to develop vaccines against emerging infectious disease.

Gennova on Tuesday said that it got the approval from India’s drug regulator for an Omicron strain specific m-RNA booster vaccine. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has supported Gennova for this research, and the company got support under the Mission Covid Suraksha by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (Birac).

The vaccine is named Gemcovac-OM, and will be launched within the next 10-15 days. The company did not disclose the price. It would be administered intradermally in a needle-free manner through the Tropis Pharmajet technology. The vaccine does not need ultra-low temperature conditions for transport and storage and is stable at 2-8 degree Celsius.

While Covid-19 vaccine demand has waned, Gennova feels there is sufficient demand from the vulnerable population. “We are comfortable about demand, and that is what our survey across 35-cities shows. The pandemic may be over, but Covid19 is not over,” Singh said.

Only 36 new cases were reported on Tuesday, the lowest since March 2020. When compared to the peak of the pandemic in India in May 2021 (over 300,000 daily cases), the numbers have gone down significantly. The Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in an interview to PTI that the situation is stable now after more than three years of one of the worst pandemics to hit the world but all necessary measures would remain in place to guard against any variant that can prove to be deadly.

Gennova was part of the vaccine-related G20 meeting that happened earlier this month in Hyderabad where representatives of the WHO, CEPI, Gates Foundation were present. Discussions around using mRNA booster doses across the globe were discussed.

Singh said that they have spent the last two years in developing a backward integrated supply chain. “Now we are almost 75 percent backward integrated. For key ingredients like lipids and enzymes we are in a comfortable position. We can supply globally or also manufacture in regional hubs,” Singh explained.

As such 1.2 million doses of the Gemcovac-OM have been approved by the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli, and are ready to be released into the market.