‘New variant of Covid likely by November, may evade vaccine’, says Krishna Ella

Predicting a new variant of Covid-19 in India by November that may “evade the vaccine” and “increase hospitalisation”, chairman and managing director at Bharat Biotech (BB) International Limited Dr Krishna Ella advocated nasal vaccine as the next step for the protection of upper respiratory system as injectable vaccines can protect “only the lower part”.

Speaking at the 43rd Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture on “innovation and entrepreneurship” at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on Saturday, Ella said, “People who took the injectable vaccines are protected in the lower (respiratory system) part so they still get the infection because upper part of the lung is not protected. The nasal vaccine gives upper lung protection… We are optimistic that both injectable and nasal strategy will work,” said Dr Ella.

Phase 3 trial for BB’s nasal vaccine was announced as completed in June this year and the company is yet to submit the trial data with the DCGI.

Stating that conducting clinical trials during the pandemic was a challenge, Ella emphasised that during Covaxin development, “safety” was kept as the first tenet so that “healthy people do not get into trouble”. “Even if the efficacy is a little down, it doesn’t matter, but its safety profile is very very important,” he said.