MISSION COVID SURAKSHA

CONTEXT:

The Government of India has announced the stimulus package of Rs. 900 crore for the Mission COVID Suraksha, the Indian Covid-19 Vaccine Development Mission, which will help the development process of the vaccine candidates.

AIM:

1. Accelerating pre-clinical and clinical development.
2. Licensure of Covid-19 vaccine candidates that are currently in clinical stages or ready to enter the clinical stage of development.
3. Establishing clinical trial sites.
4. Strengthening the existing central laboratories and suitable facilities for animal studies, production facilities and other testing facilities to support the vaccine development.
5. Supporting the development of common harmonized protocols, training, data management systems, regulatory submissions, internal and external quality management systems and accreditations.
6. Supporting capabilities for process development, cell line development and manufacturing of GMP batches for animal toxicology studies and clinical trials. 
7. Developing suitable Target Product Profile so that vaccines being introduced through the mission have preferred characteristics applicable to India

MAIN POINTS:

• Mission COVID Suraksha is India’s targeted effort to enable the development of indigenous, affordable and accessible vaccines for the country and will complement the ongoing mission of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• The Centre had announced this package during the third economic stimulus.
• The Mission with its end-to-end focus from preclinical development through clinical development and manufacturing and regulatory facilitation for deployment, would consolidate all available and funded resources towards accelerated product development.
• Phase-I of the Mission has been allotted Rs. 900 Crore for a period of 12 months.
• The grant will be provided to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for Research and Development (R&D) of Indian Covid-19 vaccines.
• It will be led by DBT and implemented by a dedicated Mission Implementation Unit at the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
• The existing activities under National Bio Pharma Mission (NBM) and Ind-CEPI Mission will provide complementary strengths to this Mission.

VACCINE CANDIDATES ARE IN HUMAN TRIALS:

1. Covishield
2. Covaxin
3. ZyCoV-D
4. Sputnik V
5. BNT162b2

SOURCE: PIB