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Wockhardt partners with UK govt for COVID-19 vaccines

The manufacturing will be undertaken at CP Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of the company based in North Wales, Wockhardt said in a statement.

August 03, 2020 / 06:13 PM IST
Representative image

Representative image

Drug firm Wockhardt on Monday said it has entered into an agreement with the UK government to fill-finish COVID-19 vaccines, and will undertake manufacturing at its facility in North Wales.

The manufacturing will be undertaken at CP Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of the company based in North Wales, Wockhardt said in a statement.

As per the terms of the pact, the company has reserved manufacturing capacity to allow for supply of multiple vaccines to the UK government in its fight against COVID-19, including AZD1222, the vaccine co-invented by University of Oxford and its spinout company Vaccitech, and licensed by AstraZeneca, it added.

"We are proud to be collaborating with the UK government to make vaccines available and the arrangement brings in a huge sense of purpose and pride, it upholds our ongoing commitment to fight against such a pandemic of global human importance," Wockhardt Founder Chairman Habil Khorakiwala said.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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first published: Aug 3, 2020 06:00 pm

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