India has Established Itself as a Vaccine Superpower: Dr Balram Bhargava

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
India has established itself as a vaccine superpower when it developed Covaxin and the country now produces 60 per cent of the world’s vaccine, according to Prof Balram Bhargava, Immediate Past Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)- the frontal agency which tackled Covid 19 pandemic in India.

The Padma Shri winner was delivering a keynote address here at BRIC-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) on Tuesday on the theme ‘Accelerate Action’ as part of RGCB’s Women’s Day celebration.

“Sixty per cent of world’s vaccine is now manufactured in Pune and is supplied to the world. In 2021, we exported vaccines to more than 100 countries which underscores our potential in research and development of vaccines,” said Dr Balram.

Vaccine development, right from funding to pre-clinical studies to clinical studies, to lab studies, to physiological studies, has been implemented seamlessly with the help of government machinery, and we have formed a National Task Force, comprising of forty scientists from various research domains who were put to act in need of a crisis, he noted.

During the Omicron wave, India had the least death rate compared to countries like Russia , UK, USA etc as more than 95% of the population were vaccinated which show how well the government machinery along with our health department has worked during the crisis phase, he said.

Dr Sharmila Bapat, Director, BRIC-National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, who is a pioneer scientist in cancer stem cell research, called upon women to come forward to do research in science. In this context, she pointed out that a lot of schemes are available for women researchers.

RGCB Director Prof. Chandrabhas Narayana highlighted the dominant role played by women faculty and research students in RGCB. “One of our faculty members is currently leading the Indian delegation which is working on cervical cancer eradication. Many of our women students are now doing post-doctoral research in reputed institutions abroad”.