Science & Us

The confirmed COVID19 cases in India have touched 2.98 million as on date. We at Suno India have been looking at the various efforts being deployed for pandemic management in the country and presenting critical voices since early on.

We set out to find what the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, popularly known as CCMB has been working on, during the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. Established in 1977, CCMB is a premier research institute in the field of modern biology in India.

In this episode of The Suno India Show, Ayesha Minhaz spoke with Dr Rakesh Mishra, the director of CCMB. From validating the testing kits to working on innovating cheaper test kits, CCMB has been involved in improving the country’s capacity in pandemic management in several ways. Dr Mishra speaks to us about all the ongoing extensive work.

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There is an urgent need to find a cure for COVID-19. Old drugs that have been developed and approved for one disease are now being evaluated to see if they can be used to reduce the severity and to bring down mortality of this new disease. Some drugs have been proven to be effective. Some have been found to have limited impact. Yet others have not been proven effective but are widely used anyway. All but one of these drugs is priced in the tens of thousands of rupees per course of treatment out of reach of most patients of COVID-19. Add the charges for other drugs and for the hospital. Families of patients are looking at bills of lakhs and lakhs of rupees. The bulk of people falling ill with COVID-19 are the poor and most vulnerable to infection because of their cramped living conditions, or because their work requires interaction with the public, such as frontline healthcare workers, bus conductors, shopkeepers, street vendors. But their doctors have told them that these drugs work. So they are among those standing in long lines outside pharmacies, for medicines which cost Rs 30,000 upwards.

In this episode, Sandhya Srinivasan, consulting editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics talks to Advocate Veena Johari who has worked for decades on legal action and has recently written a letter on behalf of the Cancer Patients’ Aid Association to revoke a patent on Remdesivir.

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With confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassing 13 million with no sign of it slowing down, scientists are pushing forward with efforts to find and develop vaccines and treatments to slow down the pandemic and lessen the virus’ effects. It is estimated that some of the earliest treatments will likely be drugs that are already approved for other conditions and have been tested on other viruses. Many groups across the world are also working on potential COVID-19 vaccines with several also backed by the nonprofit Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Currently there are more than 150 projects around the world centred on the development of COVID-19 vaccine. According to a WHO summary of the state of vaccine development for COVID-19, there are 23 potential vaccines in human trials, with three of them in or starting large-scale late stage, or Phase III, trials to test efficacy.

More recently, vaccine development and discussion came into limelight after a letter by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was circulated widely which set August 15 as a deadline for vaccine to be rolled out. While ICMR later clarified that the letter was internal and was aimed at bypassing the “red tape” surrounding vaccine research, lot of experts and ethicists raised concerns on this.

In this episode, Suno India editor Padma Priya spoke with Dr Shahid Jameel, the Chief Executive Officer of the DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance, which is a biomedical research charity which funds research at not for profit institutions in India.

Also listen The need for evidence-based medicine in treating COVID-19

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A number of old drugs approved for other diseases are being “repurposed” and tested for their safety and efficacy in COVID-19, in systematic clinical trials. They have emergency approval for use in COVID-19, but most are not yet proven for this use. Some drugs have received approval without adequate testing. Other drugs are being used without getting approval for use in COVID-19. All these drugs are being prescribed widely by doctors, outside of clinical trials.

In this episode, Sandhya Srinivasan, consulting editor for the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics spoke with Dr SP Kalantri, director professor of medicine at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, and medical superintendent of the Kasturba Hospital there. One focus of his work has been the epidemiology of chronic diseases at the primary and secondary levels.

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