India will emerge as a manufacturing hub after vaccine against COVID is developed: DG CSIR

The Director-General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Dr Shekhar Mande on Thursday told Republic TV that India has the potential of becoming a manufacturing hub after a vaccine for COVID-19 is produced. 

Dr Mande made the statement while answering the question, Whether India will be able to expeditiously provide vaccine to its people?

"So on the vaccine front there are two front-runners at present. China and US have finished the phase 1 clinical trials and are getting ready for phase 2 clinical trials. We have to wait and watch, in few months we will know the results. Indian companies are extremely capable of producing large amount of vaccine, so as and when an approval comes for vaccine, I am sure Indian companies will go all out. India will become a global hub for vaccine manufacturing. 

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India is making several efforts in producing a vaccine against COVID-19. Whereas it is working on an indigenous product, at the same time, it has also collaborated at various global platforms to cultivate vaccine against COVID-19 which has rattled the world.  India has as many as 30 groups, including industries and academics who are making relentless efforts to develop a vaccine to combat Coronavirus. AICTE and CSIR have held drug discovery hackathon to train students to do computational drug discovery amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's administration has selected five companies to produce a vaccine for Coronavirus, while Brazil has allowed human clinical trials for the candidate being developed by Oxford University. Across the globe, 120 vaccines to combat Coronavirus are under process.

Globally, over 6,430,705 COVID cases have been reported so far. The death toll stands at 3,85,947. However, on a positive note, 2,804,982 people have recovered from the deadly virus. 

The spike of cases in India has been witnessed after restrictions imposed amid the Nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus were relaxed in the fourth phase of the lockdown by the MHA to revive the economy which took major hit post the curfew.

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