Drug controller allows Indian firm to conduct phase 1 trials for Zika vaccine

Indian Express
By: Express News Service 
New Delhi: December 19, 2017

Zika is an infection spread by the Aedes egypti mosquito. Infections in pregnant women can cause children to be born with brain deficiencies
The Drugs Controller General of India has granted permission to an Indian firm to conduct Phase-I clinical trials for a Zika vaccine. Zika is an infection spread by the Aedes egypti mosquito. Infections in pregnant women can cause children to be born with brain deficiencies. Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Lok Sabha on Monday that an Indian firm had submitted an application to the drugs controller.

“The application was on the Zika virus vaccine, along with non-clinical (animal) toxicity data, claiming 100 per cent efficacy in animals for grant of permission to conduct the Phase-I clinical trial. Based on the evaluation of application, in consultation with the Experts Committee, the DCG (I) has granted permission to conduct the Phase-I clinical trial,” he said in a written reply to a question. Phase I trials ascertain the safety, tolerability and physiological action of a compound inside the body.

Anupriya Patel, also Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, said in another written reply that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the Zika virus to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on February 1, 2016, following an outbreak in Brazil and other Latin American countries and its association with birth defects (microcephaly) in newborns.

“Further, the WHO declared that it ceased to be a Public Health Emergency on November 18, 2016,” Patel said. She added that the ministry has a three-pronged action plan on combating the disease, and there are 27 laboratories in the government sector that can test the Zika virus.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pakistan's shame: 139 Pakistanis on UN terror list; Hafiz Saeed also named

Business Standard April 05, 2018 Amid its apparent failure to withdraw support and funding to proscribed terrorist organisations, Pakistan is set to be 'grey listed' by the Financial Action Task Force in June. Pakistan continues to be associated with globally-censured terrorists with 139 Pakistani citizens and entities featuring in the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC's) consolidated list of terrorists or terror-supporting organisations. The individuals and entities from the country in the list include Mumbai terrorist attack mastermind Hafeez Saeed's outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and the Haqqanis. The list was released on Tuesday and highlighted names of terrorists who lived in Pakistan, used Pakistani soil for their operations or collaborated with terrorist groups operating from within Pakistan. The list is topped by Osama bin Laden's heir apparent Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was a former operational and military lea...
Read more
 The Telegraph  December 24, 2020 A new, potentially more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has been found in Britain in cases linked to South Africa, British health secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday.  South Africa’s health department said last week that a new genetic mutation of the virus had been discovered and might be responsible for a recent surge in infections there. “Thanks to the impressive genomic capability of the South Africans, we’ve detected two cases of another new variant of coronavirus here in the UK,” Hancock told a media briefing. “Both are contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa over the past few weeks.”  Britain is already trying to curb the spread of a mutated strain of the virus which is up to 70 per cent more transmissible, and further studies are being carried out on the new variant. “This new variant is highly concerning, because it is yet more transmissible, and it appears to have mutated ...
Read more

CIBIL- SIDBI study: ‘Despite rate cuts & govt push, MSME credit growth slides’

The Indian Express October 17, 2019 Mirroring the deepening slowdown in the economy, commercial lending exposure in the country has declined 2.6 per cent, or Rs 1,70,000 crore, to Rs 63.8 lakh crore in the June quarter of 2019-20 from Rs 65.5 lakh crore in March 2019, said a TransUnion CIBIL- SIDBI study. Despite several rate cuts by the RBI, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have recorded a slide in credit exposure. “Entities having less than Rs 25 crore credit exposure have reported a lower credit growth rate of 12 per cent in the year ended June 2019 as against a growth rate of 23.1 per cent last year. Very small segment (less than Rs 10 lakh exposure) have registered a credit growth of only 11.3 per cent in June as against a growth rate of 26.2 per cent last year,” says the study. Of the Rs 63.8-lakh crore commercial lending exposure, micro and SME segments account for Rs 15.7 lakh crore exposure (24.5 per cent of commercial credit outstanding). While mi...
Read more