IIT Guwahati, Hester Biosciences collaborate to develop vaccine against COVID-19

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati is collaborating with Hester Biosciences Ltd to work on vaccine development against COVID-19, both organisations said on Wednesday.

IIT Guwahati and Hester expect the vaccine to be ready by the year-end to start animal studies. The work is currently in its early stage of development. "The vaccine will be based on recombinant avian paramyxovirus based vector platform," they said in a statement.

Rajiv Gandhi, Managing Director and CEO of Hester Biosciences said that in the current pandemic situation of COVID-19, the world is looking at developing preventive and curative measures to safeguard mankind. "IIT Guwahati and Hester have collaborated to develop and manufacture a recombinant vaccine against COVID-19 disease as a preventive measure. Hester's involvement will be from master seed development up to release of the commercial vaccine," he said.

Gandhi said Hester has 23 years of experience in vaccine manufacturing on the veterinary side. "The company has a fairly good understanding and the capability to get into human vaccines, specifically into a vaccine against the COVID-19 disease," he said.

Sachin Kumar, Associate Professor at IIT Guwahati's Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering said it is too early to comment on the efficacy and immunogenicity of the vaccine. "However, we will be able to reveal more details about this vaccine after the results of animal studies are obtained," he said.