COVID-19

The COVID-19 catastrophe in India has resulted in more than 30 million people infected with the virus and nearly 400,000 deaths, though experts are concerned that the figures most likely are much higher. Meanwhile, another public health crisis has emerged along with COVID-19: the widespread misuse of antibiotics.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Oncolytic-Virus-Immuno-Therapeutics (LOVIT) at the LIH Department of Oncology (DONC) are working on the development of novel anticancer strategies based on oncolytic viruses, “good” viruses that can specifically infect, replicate in and kill cancer cells. In particular, the LOVIT team elucidated the mechanism through which the H-1PV cancer-destroying virus can attach to and enter cancer cells, thereby causing their lysis and death.

The PGIMER owes its inception to the vision of late Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, the then Chief Minister of Punjab and the distinguished medical educationists of the then combined state of Punjab, supported by the first Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru who considered the institutions of scientific knowledge as temples of learning and the places of pilgrimage.

Recruitment of Research Staff for RESEARCH PROJECT: “A systematic and living evidence and guideline recommendation map on COVID-19” (RecMap Project)

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (Tata MD), the new healthcare venture from the Tata Group have teamed up to boost the COVID-19 testing capacity across Tier-II and Tier-III towns as well as rural areas, across India. The two organisations are developing capacity to handle any future surge in the COVID-19 testing requirements.

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and Laxai Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, have been given the regulatory approval by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to undertake a two-arm phase-II clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of the drug Colchicine in the improvement of clinical outcomes during the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Novavax, Inc announced that NVX-CoV2373, its recombinant nanoparticle protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, 90.4% efficacy overall, and met the primary endpoint in its PREVENT-19 pivotal Phase 3 trial. The study enrolled 29,960 participants across 119 sites in the U.S. and Mexico to evaluate efficacy, safety and immunogenicity, with an emphasis on recruiting a representative population of communities and demographic groups most impacted by the disease.

Patanjali Pharma Pvt. Ltd. is a Startup which has been incubated with SINE (Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship), IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, India.  It has been working on major thrust areas like diagnostics and therapeutics for COVID-19, Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, Malnutrition and other infectious disorders.

“It is a piece of misinformation that subsequent waves of the COVID-19 pandemic are going to cause severe illness in children. There is no data - either from India or globally - to show that children will be seriously infected in subsequent waves.” This was informed by Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, Dr. Randeep Guleria, during a media briefing on COVID-19, held at National Media Centre, PIB Delhi today.

New research identified a novel interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the galectin-3-binding protein (LGALS3BP) which could be a new therapeutic anti-viral target. The research also found the presence of detectable viral RNA in blood in COVID-19 patients is a strong predictor of mortality.