Covaxin

Why in news

• India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, was granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 3^rd November 2021.

More about the news:

• The EUL is a prerequisite for the COVAX initiative in vaccine supply, and allows countries to expedite their own regulatory approval to import and administer COVID-19 vaccines.
• The move is expected to ease international travel for Indians who have opted for the Covaxin but experts say that this would be subjected to countries clearing Covaxin through their regulatory processes.

About Covaxin:

• Covaxin is indigenous, inactivated vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
• It is developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, Pune
• The vaccine is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell derived platform technology.
  • Inactivated vaccines do not replicate and are therefore unlikely to revert and cause pathological effects.
  • They contain dead virus, incapable of infecting people but still able to instruct the immune system to mount a defensive reaction against an infection.
  • Numerous vaccines for diseases such as Seasonal Influenza, Polio, Pertussis, Rabies, and Japanese Encephalitis use the same technology to develop inactivated vaccines
• It is expected to target more than just the spike protein of corona virus.
• It also aims to develop an immune response to the nucleocapsid protein (the shell of the virus that encloses its genetic material).

Key Attributes:

• COVAXIN is included along with immune-potentiators, also known as vaccine adjuvants, which are added to the vaccine to increase and boost its immunogenicity.
• It is a vaccine with no sub-zero storage, no reconstitution requirement, and ready to use liquid presentation in multi-dose vials, stable at 2-8oC.

Significance:

• COVAXIN is more likely to work against newer variants of the virus, including the UK variant, as it contains immunogens (epitopes) from other genes in addition to those from Spike protein.
  • Immunogen is a stimulus that produces a humoral or cell-mediated immune response, whereas antigens are any substance that binds specifically to an antibody.
  • All immunogens are antigens, but all antigens may not be immunogens.

Add ons:

• The vaccine received DCGI approval for Phase I & II Human Clinical Trials in July, 2020.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements regarding ‘Covaxin’:

1. It is an intranasal vaccine

2. It is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell derived platform technology

3. It requires sub-zero storage

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 2 only

(d) 1 and 3 only

Answer