Author: Biotech Express

No one can be forced to take the vaccine, the Supreme Court said in a landmark decision on India’s Covid vaccine policy, also directing the central government to publish reports on the adverse effects of vaccination. “Bodily integrity is protected under the law and nobody can be forced to be vaccinated,” the Supreme Court said. The court asserted, however, that “certain limitations on individual rights” could be imposed in the interest of community health. “Barring Covid-appropriate behaviour, we suggest no curbs on unvaccinated individuals in access to public places, services and resources if cases are low,” the Supreme Court said.…

State-run energy large NTPC has invited bids from the nation’s startups for the manufacturing of torrefied biomass pellets. Through its analysis and growth wing NETRA, the NTPC intends to present a platform to startups to allow them develop a sophisticated know-how for producing torrefied biomass pellets which might be well-suited for decentralised small-scale customers. The deadline for the submission of the proposals titled ‘torrefied pellet manufacturing plant for agri-waste‘ is May 19, 2022, NTPC stated in an announcement. The transfer is predicted to reinforce NTPC’s dedication in the direction of growing the biomass ecosystem within the nation, and can present…

Dr. Ritu Trivedi, Senor Principal Scientist at Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow has been selected for the National Women Scientist Award for Excellence in Translational Research (National Tech Excellence Award for Women-2022) by Department of Science and Technology (DST). Dr. Ritu is being awarded for her contribution in the development of Reunion as a rapid fracture healing and for management of post-menopausal osteoporosis. To recognize outstanding contribution of women scientists and entrepreneurs in commercializing innovative indigenous technologies, Technology Development Board under DST gives away the National Tech Excellence Award under the two categories i.e., first as National Women Scientist…

Pharma exports have touched Rs 1,83,422 crore in 2021-22 against Rs 90,415 crore in 2013-14, the commerce ministry said on Sunday. Amidst the pandemic, the Indian Biopharma Industry, with over 300 companies, has witnessed a good growth of 13 per cent, 2 per cent less than the previous year’s 15 per cent growth rate. This growth was largely driven by performance of the Indian biopharma companies which have done very well as against multinational companies. As a result, the Indian Biopharma Industry has crossed the Rs 33,000 crore mark for the year 2020-21 over the previous year’s figure of Rs 29,176 crore.…

AstraZeneca topped off a very busy week with its first-quarter financial report, citing a total of $11.390 billion in revenue, a whopping increase of 60%. That was driven by the acquisition of Alexion and several contracts for Vaxzevria, its COVID-19 vaccine developed with the University of Oxford. The company also announced plans to open a new location in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This site will act as a strategic R&D center for the company in addition to being Alexion’s new corporate headquarters. It will house about 1,500 R&D, commercial and corporate staffers into a “single purpose-built space in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.” AstraZeneca closed its deal with Alexion in 2021,…

A new study found a correlation between an increase in emergency cardiovascular events among people under 40 years of age and the early months of Israel’s COVID-19 vaccine program. Published in the Nature journal, researchers utilized data from the Israel National Emergency Medical Services between 2019 and 2021 that evaluated emergency, or EMS, calls among 16- to 39-year-olds across Israel “with potential factors including COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates.” They found that there was a 25 percent increase in EMS calls between January 2021 to May 2021, as compared with the years 2019 and 2020. Israel, which primarily uses Pfizer’s…

Atal New India Challenge is a flagship program of Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog. The program aims to seek, select, support and nurture technology-based innovations that solve sectoral challenges of national importance and societal relevance. One of the primary goals of the ANIC program is to support innovations in areas critical to India’s development and growth – Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Agriculture, Food Processing, Housing, Energy, Mobility, Space Application etc. Launching the Challenge, Dr S. Chandrasekar, Secretary, DST in his address said that Government will hand-hold the path breaking innovations and asked the start-ups to take up hard challenges.…

We should not force COVID vaccines on anyone when the evidence shows that naturally acquired immunity is equal to or more robust and superior to existing vaccines. Instead, we should respect the right of the bodily integrity of individuals to decide for themselves, said an article published in 2021. Public health officials and the medical establishment with the help of the politicized media are misleading the public with assertions that the COVID-19 shots provide greater protection than natural immunity. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, for example, was deceptive in her October 2020 published LANCET statement that “there is no evidence for…

A COVID-19 vaccine named Corbevax looked like a triumph for India’s burgeoning drug industry. Because its U.S. developers hadn’t claimed a patent on it, an Indian manufacturer named Biological E was able to sell the two-dose protein-based vaccine to the government at the extraordinarily low price of 145 rupees ($1.90) per dose. In March, the country began to give the shots to 12- to 14-year-olds, a group for which India did not yet have a licensed COVID-19 vaccine. But the celebration was quickly drowned out by questions over whether India’s drug regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), had…

Efforts to promote entrepreneurship in the Jammu and Kashmir region have got a major boost with the establishment of a BioNEST bio-incubation centre at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Jammu-based, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines (IIIM). Nestled within the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, the region is particularly rich in terms of medicinal and aromatic plants. It has immense potential for biotech startups, especially in areas such as essential oil products, medicinal mushrooms, nutraceutical products, herbal drugs, and the wellness industry. Enterprising ideas in the biotech sector need incubation support vastly different from the IT sector. They need a…