Promising nanobodies against COVID-19 produced by llamas
Thought LeadersDr. David BrodyProfessor of NeurologyUniformed Services University
In this interview, News-Medical speaks to Dr. David Brody about his latest research that involved discovering nanobodies produced by llamas that could help combat coronavirus.
What provoked your research into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic?
We are neuroscientists, so it was a bit of a shift in direction! For several years TJ and I had been testing out how to use nanobodies to make brain imaging better. When the pandemic broke, we thought this is a once in a lifetime, all-hands-deck situation and joined the fight.
Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech. File
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
The expert committee said Bharat Biotech should generate safety and immunogenicity data in Phase-I clinical trial, with 75 subjects, in the proposed doses as per the protocol.
The clinical trial of Bharat Biotech’s intranasal vaccine for COVID-19 is likely to take some time to get off ground with a subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) directing the vaccine maker to submit a revised trial protocol.
On an application from Bharat Biotech, seeking permission for phase I/II clinical trial of the Chimpanzee Adenovirus Vectored COVID-19 intranasal vaccine (BBV154), the committee said the firm should generate safety and immunogenicity data in Phase-I clinical trial, with 75 subjects, in the proposed doses as per the protocol.
Hyderabad, the new vaccine capital of India Apart from Covaxin and Sputnik V, companies based in the city are also involved in developing or manufacturing several other Covid-19 vaccines.
Jan 23, 2021
When a senior technical team from Russia’s health ministry descended on Hyderabad in November 2020, nobody knew that it was breaking an emerging oligopoly in the Indian market, quietly but decisively. The manufacturing of the Covid-19 vaccine wasn’t meant to be restricted to a few.
After auditing several facilities across the country, the Russian team chose three companies from Hyderabad, to undertake clinical trials for its Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in India and contract-manufacture the vaccine Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hetero Biopharma, and Virchow Biotech.