Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday had virtual meetings with three teams working on developing and manufacturing vaccine for COVID-19.

These teams are from Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, Pune, Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad and Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd, Hyderabad. The PM appreciated the efforts being made by the scientists in these companies to come out with a vaccine solution to tackle the coronavirus. The potential of various platforms for vaccine development was also discussed, an official statement said.

Modi also asked the companies to come out with their suggestions and ideas regarding the regulatory processes and related matters. He also suggested that they should take extra efforts to inform the general public in simple language about the vaccine and related matters such as its efficacy etc. Matters relating to logistics, transport, cold chain etc in respect of delivering the vaccines were also discussed.
 
All the vaccine candidates discussed are at different stages of trials and detailed data and results are expected early next year onwards.

The PM advised all the departments concerned to engage with the manufacturers and seek to resolve matters so that the efforts by these companies bear fruit in order to serve the needs of the country and the entire world.

On Saturday, the PM has visited three vaccine manufacturing facilities – Zydus Biotech Park near Ahmedabad, Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad and Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, and reviewed the progress on vaccine development front.