Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reviewed the Covid-19 vaccine development at Ahmedabad’s Zydus Biotech Park and hailed the team for work done on Zydus Cadila’s candidate before starting for Bharat Biotech’s facility in Telangana.
“Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work. The government of India is actively working with them to support them in this journey,” he tweeted.
In his interaction with scientists and company officials, PM Modi was briefed about the vaccine development work and the vaccine production procedure at the plant, Hindustan Times reported.
Modi on Saturday began his three-city visit to review coronavirus vaccine development work by going to pharma major Zydus Cadila’s manufacturing facility near Ahmedabad.
He also visited the Bharat Biotech facility as part of his three-city tour to take stock of the COVID-19 vaccine development.
The vaccine is being developed and will be manufactured at Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) facility in Genome Valley in Hyderabad.
Wearing a PPE kit, Modi reviewed the vaccine development process at the Zydus Cadila research centre in Changodar industrial area, over 20 km from Ahmedabad.
After his arrival at Ahmedabad airport from Delhi shortly after 9 am, Modi flew to the Zydus Cadila plant and held discussions with the promoters and executives of the company, an official said. Modi spent over an hour at the plant, before leaving for the airport, from where will fly to Hyderabad.
Zydus Cadila has announced that the phase-I clinical trial of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D is over and it has commenced phase-II clinical trials from August.
After his hour-long visit to the facility, the PM will proceed to Pune, where he will visit the Serum Institute of India (SII), which has partnered with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and the Oxford University for the vaccine.
