Author: Biotech Express

Kamal Pratap Singh Pfizer eyes $26B in COVID-19 vaccine sales for the year 2021, with $3.5B (360 crore Rs) already in the bag. Moderna has predicted output of up to 1 billion doses this year. Adar Poonawalla on May 1 announced that the Serum Institute would be able to raise its monthly output to 100 million (10 crore) doses by July. India approved Russian made Sputnik V also, and is also planning to approve vaccines made by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and others. Pfizer is making 300 crore doses (3 billion) whereas Indian vaccine manufacturer consortium of Bharat Biotech…

Seema Pavgi Upadhye Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, new variants emerge and persist. In 2019 when SARS-CoV-2 burst upon the world, scientists knew that it was bad but thought it was stable as Corona Virus don’t mutate as readily as few other viruses like hepatitis, flu or AIDS. Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surfaces. They have a molecular “proof reading “ system that SARS-CoV-2 and its generation use to prevent damaging genetic errors when replicating. But…

KC Bansal1, Kutubuddin A. Molla2, and Sonia Goel3 1 The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Asia, India, New Delhi 2 ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack 3 SGT University, Gurugram Corresponding Author: kcbansal27@gmail.com Genome or gene editing mediated by CRISPR-Cas system has emerged as a powerful tool with a capability of precisely mutagenizing the genome of a wide range of organisms. The technology is based on an existing bacterial immune system, and is accepted and applied world-wide as a simple, precise and efficient method to genetically improve living organisms including animal and plant species for agriculture, food and nutrition.In…

Shrikant Nema1, 2 1Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, ICMR-National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, PO Garha, Nagpur Road, Jabalpur-482003, M.P., India; 2School of Biotechnology, Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidhalya (State Technological University of Madhya Pradesh), Bhopal, 462 023, Madhya Pradesh, India Correspondence: shrikantnema2014@gmail.com Abstract India along with 25 other countries has set the goal of malaria elimination by 2030. Out of these 26 countries, 22 are affected with COVID-19. We propose herewith that such countries, e.g., India must plan and manage the COVID-19 situations in a way not to hinder targeted malaria elimination goal. Keywords: COVID-19, Malaria elimination, India …

by Shrikant Nema Affiliations: Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, ICMR-National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, PO Garha, Nagpur Road, Jabalpur-482003, Madhya Pradesh, India and School of Biotechnology, Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidhalya (State Technological University of Madhya Pradesh), Bhopal, 462 023, Madhya Pradesh, India Correspondence: shrikantnema2014@gmail.com Abstract India along with 25 other countries has set the goal of malaria elimination by 2030. Out of these 26 countries, 22 are affected with COVID-19. We propose herewith that such countries, e.g., India must plan and manage the COVID-19 situations in a way not to hinder targeted malaria elimination goal. Keywords: COVID-19, Malaria elimination,…

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the Narendra Modi government has fielded three scientists to brief the media and the public at large. They are principal scientific adviser K. VijayRaghavan; NITI Aayog member and chief of national expert group on vaccines V.K. Paul; and Indian Council of Medical Research director-general Balram Bhargava. Individually and collectively, they, along with various bureaucrats and ministers who purportedly have sought to inform and guide the public, have been far less forthcoming in handling questions than their counterparts in other democracies reeling from COVID-19, especially the UK and the US. Here are…

The Panel Discussion on “Pharma and Biopharma Industries in India: Challenges and Opportunities in Innovative Drug Discovery and Development” was conducted as a part of the concluding session of the virtual workshop on “Drug Discovery and Development” from 15th March to 4th April 2021 by the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) (biofaba.org.in), the Science Gurus (sciencegurus.org) and the University of Hyderabad (uohyd.ac.in). The workshop participants included undergraduate students, postgraduates, research and postdoctoral scholars, and research scientists from universities, research institutions and Pharma/biotech industries across India, Bangladesh, Israel and Iran. The highlights of the workshop were the exceptional speakers who…

Kamal Pratap Singh Abstract: The COVID- 19 is in existence since more than a year and still no one, not even Anthony Fauci himself is sure to answer that how much time it will take to come to normal. Scientific claims and political scenarios have made the situation worst in some parts of the world and thus common man has been suffering from all of this. In this article, the author has been trying to understand various aspects that can clear our doubts about coronavirus and handling of future activities in regard to this or any other similar biological pandemic.…

As the 65-year-old freelance journalist’s complaint went viral on Twitter, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s media advisor responded to him next afternoon, asking for more details. By then, Srivastava’s oxygen levels had fallen to 31. At 4.20 pm on Saturday, his son, Harshit Srivastava, tweeted to say his father had died – waiting for an ambulance. “We did not get anything,” he told Scroll.in on the phone. “I called every number for an oxygen cylinder but no one picked up.” It took eight months to invite bids for over 150 oxygen generation plants costing just Rs 200 crore. Six months…

The finance ministry has given in-principle nod for advance payment of Rs 4,567.50 crore to Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) to boost the production of the vaccines in India. This constitutes 100 per cent advance to two of India’s Covid vaccine manufacturers till July. While Rs 3,000 crore has been approved for Pune-based SII—the manufacturer of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, Rs 1567.50 crore has been granted to Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech to boost the production of Covaxin. The finance ministry has reportedly relaxed the general financial rules to allow the advance payment against future supplies…