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Indian vaccines don't need temperature as low as Pfizer's: AIIMS Director
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SME Times News Bureau | 11 Nov, 2020
Recently, drug company Pfizer announced that its
vaccine candidate for Covid-19 is more than 90 per cent effective at
preventing infection. This was welcomed as a major step in the fight
against the virus, which has unleashed havoc on the global economy.
Guleria
added that the Indian Covid-19 vaccine has a huge advantage over the
Pfizer vaccine, which is required to be kept at a much lower
temperature, and hence, cold storage for other vaccines can be used for
the Indian vaccine too.
Q: We have not seen any major issue with Indian vaccines at the trials stage, are you satisfied with progress made so far?
A:
Indian vaccines have a lot of hope and there are two or three reasons
for that, one is that their safety signal is very good and
immunogenicity is also being shown, and one is now looking at the
results of Phase-3 trials, which will take some time, but I am hopeful
we will have good amount of data because multi-centric studies is being
done. We quickly will be able to generate some interim analysis to show
in Phase-3 trials this vaccine can give good efficacy.
Q: Drug
company Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate for Covid-19 is more
than 90 per cent effective at preventing infection. Are Indian vaccines
on a better footing than Pfizer?
A: What Pfizer has got is
something very encouraging for other vaccines researchers also, because
that shows there is a potential of good immunity by the vaccines.
Therefore, other vaccines should also do well. Therefore, it is a big
news for all vaccine developers. We can hope for a 90 per cent efficacy.
The advantage for the Indian vaccine is that it is required to
be kept at a much lower temperature. The Pfizer vaccine currently have
to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius, therefore it will be very
difficult to vaccinate people in lower- and middle-income countries.
Because having a vaccine stored and transported at minus 70 degree
Celsius not only needs huge investment but also needs huge planning,
because most vaccines are not kept at that low temperatures.
The
Indian vaccines are going to be kept at a temperature of minus 20
degrees Celsius and this is available for most vaccines. As most
vaccines a have cold storage facility, these can be used for this
vaccine also. Therefore, the investment is not much. If we were to use a
vaccine which require storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius, then one
would require whole new cold chain development. I do not see that
happening in lot of countries.
Q: Is 90 per cent efficacy is being aimed at by Indian companies developing vaccine against Covid-19?
A:
We would like to have as much efficacy as one can. The WHO says if any
vaccine has more than 50 per cent efficacy, it is good enough. We would
definitely like to have an efficacy of 80-90 per cent. So, let us hope
that is what we are able to achieve.
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