We can VAXit Bharat: Public sector alone can't make India biotech-ready; firms, startups must jump in

Economic Times

6 days ago

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com .)
Covid cases are on the rise again. But not at any alarming rate. Further, the strains that are spreading now cause relatively mild symptoms, and hospitals are equipped to handle Covid patients, armed as they are with experience, hindsight and, one hopes, enough oxygen.But is India prepared for the attack of some new virus? Can we rapidly develop an effective vaccine, test it, and scale up production to cover our population? Not really, if we go by the cavalier disregard with which GoI treated our scientists' spectacular success in developing an indigenous vaccine for lumpy skin disease in cattle, which has spread to India from its original home in Africa, and killed some 97,000 heads of cattle in a 2022 outbreak, and decreased milk production by 25% in the affected states.Vaccines come in different types. For smallpox, a weakened but live virus - live attenuated virus - was used as the vaccine. Inactivated vaccines use the dead virus to generate an immune response, as with hepatitis A and rabies.Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines instruct the host's body to generate the virus protein, so that the immune system would start producing antibodies against the alien presence. This was famously used to combat Covid, with Moderna - which had received a grant of $25 mn in 2013 from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to develop mRNA therapeutics - developing an effective Covid vaccine, and claiming that the other developer of an mRNA vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech, had stolen its IP.DNA vaccines code for the antigen itself. Once introduced into the host's body, they induce the host to produce the antigen, which, then, stimulates an immune response. Sub-unit, recombinant, polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines use bits and pieces of the virus, like its protein, sugar or the casing around it, to stimulate an immune response. An example is Novavax, an American Covid vaccine that genetically engineered nanoparticles of the coronavirus' spike protein, which, when inside the host body, produce an immune response. The vaccine against cervical cancer falls in this category.A viral vector vaccine strips a virus like adenovirus (common cold) of its disease-generation capacity, and encodes in its genes instructions to manufacture the antigen of the pathogen against which the vaccine seeks to protect the host. AstraZeneca or Covishield vaccine is of this type. Then there are toxoid vaccines, such as anti-tetanus, in which some bit of the toxin is introduced in the body, to stimulate the needed immune response.DNA vaccines, mRNA vaccines and recombinant viral vector vaccines offer standardised platforms, in which you alter coding instructions to produce the protein of your choice to produce the desired immune response.Apart from the all-important immunity-generating content, vaccines also have pure water, stabilisers, adjuvants, antibiotics, etc. These also call for R&D. Vaccine administration is another area of research. There are several possibilities - oral, injection, skin patch. Making vaccines stay stable in room temperature would be ideal. But at least at fridge temperature is vital. mRNA vaccine originally called for storage at ultra-low temperatures, but research raised the storage temperature to normal refrigerator temperature. Operation Sindoor has given high visibility to ordnance that flies. But not all wars will be fought with weapons that create pyrotechnics. Cyberattacks are a vital area of concern. So is biological warfare. A chain is as strong as its weakest link. National security calls for strength in all sectors of potential harm.Whether to prepare for a fresh pandemic or to strengthen our defences in the eventuality of germ warfare, India needs new energy in its biotech research. Does India have the capacity to carry out such research? It absolutely has.The lumpy skin disease vaccine was developed by collaboration among different facilities of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), such as National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE) and National Centre for Veterinary Type Cultures (NCVTC) at Hisar, Haryana. NRCE's Naveen Kumar, after a 2019 outbreak of lumpy skin disease, set out to isolate the virus strain, and with the full backing of his boss, B N Tripathi, he proceeded to develop an attenuated live virus vaccine.Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly, UP, and National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, MP, were roped in. Working through Covid's lost years, when much of the country stood still, these scientists developed an effective vaccine, which could, in addition, help distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated animals.The vaccine was ready in 2022. Its formal approval took 2½ years. It was licensed to an arm of Bharat Biotech. Yet, no central minister was available to release the vaccine and celebrate this rare achievement of Indian scientists. The vaccine was released by Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu at a livestock summit in Vijayawada, earlier this month.Public sector research needs to be recognised and celebrated. But the public sector alone cannot make India biotech-ready. For that, existing biotech companies and new startups must abandon their risk aversion, and plunge into R&D.As with defence startups, the risk capital must come from both government and modest slices of our large retirement savings. Alongside mutual funds, venture funds that feed into national security must be considered 'sahi hai'.