Atmanirbhar Bharat: IISc Covid-19 Vaccine Effective Against All Variants, Stable at 37 Degrees Celsius, Says Study

Mynvax, a biotech start-up incubated by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has developed a Covid-19 vaccine formulation which is effective against all the variants of the SARS-CoV-2, a study published in the ACS Infectious Diseases Journal said.

It is an important breakthrough considering the Covid-19 vaccines currently used globally are either not effective against some variants or partially effective.

Also, the Mynvax formulation is stable at 37 degrees Celsius for up to a month and at 100 degrees Celsius for up to 90 minutes.

Most of the other vaccines required an ultra cool environment to maintain their stability. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine requires minus 70 degrees Celsius for storage and the Moderna vaccine requires minus 15 degrees Celsius. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is extensively used in India, requires a temperature around 2 degrees Celsius for storage and transportation. Many low income countries don’t have sucg storage and transportation facilities.

The research team included researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the University of York in the UK, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, and CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh.

“Our data shows that all formulations of Mynvax tested result in antibodies capable of consistent and effective neutralisation of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern”, the PTI quoted SS Vasan, a researcher from CSIRO and co-author of the study.

Currently, Delta and Delta-plus variants are causing a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in many countries and have become a cause of concern.