UPSC Articles
HGCO19: India’s first indigenous mRNA vaccine candidate receives approval
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II –Health & GS-III – Sci & Tech
In news
- India’s first indigenous mRNA vaccine candidate, HGCO19, has received approval from Indian Drug regulators to initiate Phase one and two human clinical trials.
Key takeaways
- HGCO19 has been developed by Gennova, Pune and supported with seed grant under the Ind-CEPI mission of the Department of Biotechnology.
- The mRNA vaccines do not use the conventional model to produce immune response.
- Instead, they carry the molecular instructions to make the protein in the body through a synthetic RNA of the virus.
- mRNA-based vaccines are scientifically the ideal choice to address a pandemic because of their rapid developmental timeline.
- The mRNA vaccine is considered safe as is non-infectious, non-integrating in nature, and degraded by standard cellular mechanisms.
