Nearly 30 groups in India, ranging from big industry players to individual academics, are trying to develop vaccines to fight coronavirus, Principal Scientific Adviser K VijayRaghavan said on Thursday.

Of these 30, 20 are working at a good pace, he said.

“About 30 groups in India, big industry to individual academics are trying to develop vaccines to fight COVID-19 of which 20 are keeping a good pace,” VijayRaghavan said at a media briefing here.

He said vaccine development currently takes nearly 10 years, but the aim the world over is to find a vaccine for coronavirus in a year even as he added that “till today, we have not observed any change in the virus that alters its fundamental properties.”

He said designing new drugs is a “very very big challenge” and just like a vaccine it takes a very long time.

“Most attempts fail and thus you have to try a lot,” said VijayRaghavan.

He said start-ups and acadamics have also got into developing vaccines and specified that four categories of vaccines can be there.

For instance, MRNA vaccines, in which a component of genetic material of the virus is injected. Our body translates it into viral protein and develops immune system when the virus attacks. Another is standard vaccine in which weak version of the virus is used while yet another uses protein coding region of the virus is attached to the backbone of another virus to develop vaccine, he said.

The scientist further elaborated that virus protein is developed in the lab and is used with another stimulant while several companies are trying to develop it on the backbone of flu vaccine, it is in late pre-clinical trial stage and may be by October, pre-clinical trial would conclude.

“Indian companies are collaborating with foreign companies. Academics are also trying to develop the vaccines. The logistics of making the vaccine available to everyone will be a big challenge,” said

About the drugs, he said, drugs attack the virus chemically after it infects. This is a big challenge, as the virus uses our machinary to replicate. A drug has to be designed to attack only the virus.

“It has to attack the virus an early stage. There are two broad categories of drugs which can be developed. It can be repurposed drugs or new drugs. “Designing of new drugs is a major channel.

“In India, in addition to our science agencies, the CSIR and AICTE have embarked on drug discovery hackethon where students are trained with info on how to do computational drug discovery, they will get access to expensive equipment.

“As for testing and diagnosis, a new kind of test is likely to come up for testing of virus particle presence. Several nucleic acid tests have been developed, variations of RTPCR tests have been developed. Then there are antibody tests.

“If sensitivity and specificity of antibody tests are high, they can be used to test at individual level. Otherwise, they can be used for community surveillance purpose,” explained the scientist.