India’s CSIR to develop Covid-19 antibodies

Indian government-run Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has given its green signal to a multi-institutional project to develop human monoclonal antibodies (hmAbs) that it claims can neutralise coronavirus in patients.

The project aims to generate hmAbs from the convalescent phase of Covid-19 patients and select high affinity and neutralising antibodies, CSIR Director General Shekhar C Mande said last evening.

The project also aims at factoring in future mutation of the virus and generate hmAbs clones that can neutralise the changed virus so that it could be readily used for combating future SARS-CoV-2 infections, our New Delhi correspondent reports, quoting the DG.

Mande said, "As the research into SARS-CoV-2 is in early days and our understanding is evolving each day, it is critical that we need to deploy all possible strategies to combat the virus. Hence, CSIR is exploring all avenues."

The CSIR's project on generation of neutralising monoclonal antibodies as a therapeutic strategy, developed through its flagship New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) programme, will be implemented by a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary team comprising academic institutes and industry with participants from National Centre for Cell Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, PredOmix Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL), which will be responsible for subsequent development and commercialisation of the hmAbs generated, Mande said.

The project is set to take off at a time when the death toll in Covid-19 neared the 2,000-mark and the total number of positive cases stood close to 69,000 across India.