By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Bharat Biotech has delivered three lakh doses of its nasal Covid-10 vaccine to private hospitals across India, the Hyderabad-based pharma company’s executive chairman Krishna Ella said on Sunday.
iNCOVACC, the world’s first intranasal Covid-19 vaccine, was launched on January 26. The vaccine is now available on CoWIN and priced at Rs 800 for private markets and Rs 325 for the state and central government.
“We dispatched three lakh doses of the nasal vaccine to some hospitals two days ago. Let us see the response. Some countries have approached us for (exporting) nasal vaccines. We can’t reveal the names. International agencies are looking at it very critically,” Ella, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Bharat
Biotech said on the sidelines of an event in which an MoU was signed between the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI) and the Ella Foundation for the establishment of the first-ever UW-Madison One Health Centre in Bengaluru.
He also batted for merging all state drug regulatory bodies with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to ensure “one quality, one standard” for Indian drugs.
His remarks came in the backdrop of a third incident of India-made drugs being linked with reported deaths abroad since last October. On Friday, Chennai-based Global Pharma Healthcare recalled its eye drops linked to vision loss and death in the US following US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricting its imports.
The pharma company has also been asked to stop all its productions under the category of ophthalmic preparation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier issued medical alerts twice for India-made drugs linked to the alleged deaths of 66 children in The Gambia and 18 children in Uzbekistan.
On being asked by TNIE whether the incidents have harmed India’s position as the “pharmacy of the world, he said, “The whole of Indian pharmaceutical industries cannot be sullied for a handful of cases. Even in Western countries, some companies are penalised on quality issues.”
“There should be a single regulatory framework in India. All state drug regulatory bodies should be merged with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), and that will solve the problem,” Ella said. But added that it is a “political decision and commitment is required for this.”
Stressing that it is essential to centralise the entire system, he said, “the licences for the cough syrups that were under question in the recent cases were given by state regulatory bodies, not by the Central body.”
“We have excellent companies, but because of some local agencies, we are getting into trouble,” he said.
Speaking about the UW-Madison One Health Centre, he said it would advance the development and production of new vaccines for India.
The partnership will enable collaboration across disciplines and geographic boundaries, provide Indian students and researchers access to UW expertise and training, and build research capacity in India.
The India One Health Centre joins a global network that includes Africa and Latin America. It will open new opportunities for research and education and provide actionable outcomes to benefit humans, animals, and ecosystems that advance equitable and sustainable health across India and the world.
NEW DELHI: Bharat Biotech has delivered three lakh doses of its nasal Covid-10 vaccine to private hospitals across India, the Hyderabad-based pharma company’s executive chairman Krishna Ella said on Sunday.
iNCOVACC, the world’s first intranasal Covid-19 vaccine, was launched on January 26. The vaccine is now available on CoWIN and priced at Rs 800 for private markets and Rs 325 for the state and central government.
“We dispatched three lakh doses of the nasal vaccine to some hospitals two days ago. Let us see the response. Some countries have approached us for (exporting) nasal vaccines. We can’t reveal the names. International agencies are looking at it very critically,” Ella, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Bharat
Biotech said on the sidelines of an event in which an MoU was signed between the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI) and the Ella Foundation for the establishment of the first-ever UW-Madison One Health Centre in Bengaluru.
He also batted for merging all state drug regulatory bodies with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to ensure “one quality, one standard” for Indian drugs.
His remarks came in the backdrop of a third incident of India-made drugs being linked with reported deaths abroad since last October. On Friday, Chennai-based Global Pharma Healthcare recalled its eye drops linked to vision loss and death in the US following US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricting its imports.
The pharma company has also been asked to stop all its productions under the category of ophthalmic preparation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier issued medical alerts twice for India-made drugs linked to the alleged deaths of 66 children in The Gambia and 18 children in Uzbekistan.
On being asked by TNIE whether the incidents have harmed India’s position as the “pharmacy of the world, he said, “The whole of Indian pharmaceutical industries cannot be sullied for a handful of cases. Even in Western countries, some companies are penalised on quality issues.”
“There should be a single regulatory framework in India. All state drug regulatory bodies should be merged with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), and that will solve the problem,” Ella said. But added that it is a “political decision and commitment is required for this.”
Stressing that it is essential to centralise the entire system, he said, “the licences for the cough syrups that were under question in the recent cases were given by state regulatory bodies, not by the Central body.”
“We have excellent companies, but because of some local agencies, we are getting into trouble,” he said.
Speaking about the UW-Madison One Health Centre, he said it would advance the development and production of new vaccines for India.
The partnership will enable collaboration across disciplines and geographic boundaries, provide Indian students and researchers access to UW expertise and training, and build research capacity in India.
The India One Health Centre joins a global network that includes Africa and Latin America. It will open new opportunities for research and education and provide actionable outcomes to benefit humans, animals, and ecosystems that advance equitable and sustainable health across India and the world.
