Business Today 13-Dec-20

Self-certified vaccine efficacy based on alarmingly low numbers of trials are in spotlight as the top three in the race for the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine — Pfizer, Moderna and Gamaleya — all claimed more than 90 per cent efficacy. Even though they had tested the vaccine on barely 120, 95 and 20 patients only. First Pfizer’s claim of 90 per cent efficacy was countered days later by Gamaleya’s 92 per cent followed by Moderna’s 94.5 per cent. Until Pfizer revised its claim to 95 per cent, as high as the most powerful vaccine on the planet — Measles. But the world’s toughest drug regulators under whose watch the new vaccines are being readied stayed mute witness to the bombastic game of oneupmanship the three firms engaged in to prove…

RETAIL DOMINANCE RISES Client Participation in Capital Markets at NSE (%) * till Sep'20; Source: NSE 36.5 LAKH Number of investors added on the Bombay Stock Exchange since last quarter 82% & 69% Rise in BSE Smallcap and Midcap indices, respectively, since March lows SURGE IN MOBILE TRADING Trading using mobile (%) RETAIL OWNS A GREATER SHARE OF INDIA INC. Shareholding (%) *Individual shareholders holding nominal share capital up to ₹1 lakh; Shareholding of BSE 500 companies; Source: Ace Equity DEMAT ACCOUNTS GAIN CURRENCY Number of investor accounts (In lakhs) Number of investors accounts (In lakhs); Source: SEBI SMALL CAPS GET A SHOT IN THE ARM Indices, values rebased to 100 STATES’ FISCAL DEFICIT LIKELY TO BREACH TARGET States have budgeted for consolidated gross fiscal deficit (GFD) of 2.8 per…

25% Share of world Covid-19 vaccines to be produced in India $93 billion The size of the global vaccine market due to Covid-19 pandemic, from $41.6 billion in 2018 100+ Countries where Indian vaccines will be supplied “Normally, it doesn't make a great business case, especially between two outbreaks,” Vasant Narasimhan, global CEO of Swiss pharmaceutical multinational Novartis AG, said in an exclusive interview to BT in February 2020. He was reacting to why leading global drug discovery firms were least interested in developing vaccines against viral infections such as Covid-19. At that point, the novel coronavirus infection that would swamp the world in the following months and drag down the global economy on a scale never seen in a century was still a curious virus surfacing in Far East…

Virus Based Attenuated live virus (ALV) or inactivated dead virus (IDV) are introduced into the body, which develops antigens to fight viruses. The immune system is ready to fight the virus now. Measles, mumps, smallpox vaccines are ALV-based while influenza, rabies and Hepatitis A are IDV-based. Bharat Biotech is working on IDV vaccine. Protein Based A protein is extracted from the virus (alive or inactivated), purified, and injected as a vaccine. Since corona virus is full of spikes, spike protein is what researchers are trying to use to generate immune response in the body. There are influenza vaccines based on this platform. Viral Vector The gene for a pathogen protein is inserted into a different virus that can infect someone without causing disease. This safe virus serves as ‘platform’ or…

A No Objection Certificate to produce vaccine candidate for analytical, test purposes from DGCI. If vaccine is recombinant or involves genetic tweaks, it needs approval from Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, Department of Biotechnology Apply for Test Licence from State Drugs Controller Joint inspection of facility by Central and State Drugs Control Authorities. If satisfied, State Drugs Controller gives test licence GET APPROVAL FOR STUDY PROTOCOL FOR PRE-CLINICAL TOXICITY TRIALS IN ANIMALS FROM INSTITUTIONAL ANIMAL ETHICS COMMITTEE, RECOGNISED BY ICMR Once pre-clinical trial protocol approved, produce test batches and apply to DCGI for permission to conduct pre-clinical toxicity studies in animals After pre-clinical toxicity studies, data and product samples submitted for official vetting to Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), Kasauli Submit CDL test reports to DCGI for permission to conduct human…

THE BIG INVESTMENTS ON CORONA VACCINES Serum Institute ₹2,100 crore It plans to invest another ₹900 cr Zydus Cadila ₹500 crore Bharat Biotech ₹300-400 crore When the first Corona cases surfaced during January and February in Kerala and Mumbai, it was an opportunity for scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune to study the virus. Professor Priya Abraham, a renowned pathologist and former head of department of Clinical Virology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, had taken over as the new NIV director a couple of months before. Abraham and her team isolated 11 strains of the virus, making India the fifth country after China, the US, Thailand and Japan to do so. Scientists realised the strains were 99.98 per cent similar…