Zydus Cadila testing a multi-variant Covid-19 vaccine on animals

Mixing multiple strains to get what is called a multi-variant vaccine may be a way to get better immunity, scientists feel

Ahmedabad-based Cadila Healthcare (Zydus Cadila), which has developed the first approved DNA vaccine in the world for Covid-19, is testing a multi-variant Covid-19 vaccine on animals, a senior company official said.

“We have completed our development for almost eight strains of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. We are now doing animal studies to see which of these constructs work the best to neutralise more mutations of Sars-CoV-2. It can be a vaccine construct using one strain or may be two strains,” said Sharvil Patel, MD, Zydus Cadila.

Patel said the vaccine was in the product development stage and animal studies would show