Page 34 - COVID_19_June_4_2020

DBT-BIRAC to support study on efficiency of a recombinant
BCG candidate vaccine against COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly worsening in all parts of the world, overwhelming health systems with demand for care that exceeds deliverable capacity and is compounded by high disease rates among healthcare staff. SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are many months away from widespread mass deployability.A recombinant BCG may act to ameliorate disease severity and mitigate transmission. Even moderate individual efficacy can have dramatic impact at population level directly (by reducing severe disease burden on health systems) and possibly indirectly (transmission reduction).This would thereby help sustain health systems through the rapidly increasing crisis, using a safe, affordable and available vaccine.
Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd (SIIPL) was awarded funding support under DBT’s National Biopharma Mission for the phase III clinical trials of a recombinant BCG vaccine candidate for COVID-19. SIIPL has proposed to conduct a multisite, randomized, double-blinded, placebo- controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy of recombinant BCG VPM1002 in reducing infection incidence and severe disease outcomes of COVID-19 among (1) high risk persons of advanced age or co-morbidities; and (2) high-exposure healthcare workers. Several non- clinical and clinical studies have been completed with VPM1002 in infants, adults and in HIV- exposed infants.The results acquired so far from various studies demonstrate thatVPM1002 is much safer and probably more efficacious than the standard BCG.
Website link:
https://birac.nic.in/
DBT-BIRAC-supported start up comes out with fully
automated hand hygiene device
Good hand hygiene is
the first line of defence
against diseases and other
infections. At a time when
the entire world is fighting
against COVID-19, effective
hand hygiene is one of
the most prominent tools
to control its spread.
WHO and several other
international organisations
across the world have been
emphasising on maintaining
hand hygiene.The underlying rule is simple – wash your hands for 20 seconds at least.
At this crucial time when COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, a lot of start-ups are stepping in as providers of potential COVID solutions to help healthcare professionals. BIRAC- supported start-up MicroGO has come up with an innovation called GoassureTM which is an IOT-enabled fully automated hand hygiene device that digitalizes the hand hygiene process.
The patent-pending technology assures minimum manual intervention and effort while maximising automation and hygiene. This innovation has a simple motto, “Clean hands, save lives”.The product has an innovative design and is made of good durable material considering human safety operations. The innovation is literally plug-and-play with the product being very easy to install. The smart hand hygiene station assures that the users perform hand
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