Author: Biotech Express

Our study reports that this process, while effective, may be missing out on crucial contributions from other viral proteins. To support this, we showed that when the virus’ nucleocapsid (N) protein is included during the process, the resulting viruses are significantly more infectious. The study design involved producing pseudoviruses that were enveloped by the spike protein, and also packaged a green fluorescent protein, which gets expressed when the virus infects a target cell. From an initial panel of twenty-four viral proteins of the SARS CoV-2, we individually generated pseudoviruses in the presence of each, and checked the infectivity levels. The…

Transparency International (TI) is the world’s leading non-governmental anticorruption organisation, addressing corruption in its many forms through a network of more than 100 national chapters worldwide. The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) for Governance, Accountability, and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector was established in 2015 at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. Some of the observations are: 6 or 30% are being made by developers based in countries that do not align to best practice and require the reporting of clinical trial summary results within 12 months of trial completion. Clinical study reports are only…

Updated on 28 May, 2021 Following the controversial statement on allopathy, the Indian Medical Association’s offensive stance against Swami Ramdev continues. After complaints from the PMM and defamation case of 1000 crores, a complaint has been lodged against them in Delhi as well. A controversial video has surfaced of Baba’s in which yoga gurus react to the ongoing ‘Arrest Ramdev’ trend on social media, saying that ”Unka baap bhi arrest nahi kar sakta”. On behalf of the IMA, the Secretary-General, Dr. Jayesh Lele has filed this complaint. In the complaint given in Delhi’s IP State Police Station, IMA said that Swami Ramdev is raising…

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…