There are a lot of coronavirus vaccines in the works but these are the two that Indians should watch out for – Business Insider India

I think the Oxford vaccine and Chinese vaccine are certainly in the more advanced clinical phase as is the German vaccine. The two US vaccines are, of course, much talked about but we really dont know whether these RNA vaccines will really work like theyre considered to, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw told Business Insider as a part of its special series Hangout with BI.

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According to him, the risk of vector-based vaccines in India is that theres a strong possibility that people are already immune to certain adenoviruses because theyve already been exposed to them. This results in the possibility that the vaccine wont take. Every idea out there, every platform has pluses and minuses, he said.

Ordinarily it takes at least five years to develop a viable vaccine. But in these unprecedented times, its possible that a solution could present itself in a matter of months.

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The ones in the US may not be the best for Indian patientsThe US coronavirus vaccine candidates need to be stored at -80 degrees Celsius and have to be delivered intravenously. Were much more comfortable with a jab and a low-cost vaccine, which is what the Oxford and Chinese vaccines are all about. These are more typical and conventional vaccines, she explained.

China has the lead closely followed by the Indian project underway at OxfordChina is currently leading the charge to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Cansino Biological and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology are using an Ebola-based candidate to develop a adenovirus type 5 vector coronavirus vaccine, currently in Phase-1 and Phase-2 of clinical trials.

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Coming in second is the University of Oxford, which is using a non-replicating viral vector approach based on MERS, influenza, TB, chikungunya, Zika and others to develop its coronavirus vaccine.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) the worlds largest vaccine maker is already manufacturing Oxfords vaccine even though it doesnt have approval yet. It's taking the risk of producing up to 400 million doses by the end of the year, if all goes well.

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See also:Dont hold your breath Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw says India's Covid-19 vaccine will enter clinical trials in 9 months

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There are a lot of coronavirus vaccines in the works but these are the two that Indians should watch out for - Business Insider India