The Israeli pharmaceuticals company has developed a single-dose-based oral version. (Representational image)
The next generation of Covid19 vaccines may come in pill form as an Israeli company named Oramed Pharmaceuticals is all set to start clinical trials of an oral version in Tel Aviv, according to The Times of Israel, but there is an Indian connection too.
The Israeli pharmaceuticals company has developed a single-dose-based oral version of a prospective vaccine that is being developed by India-based Premas Biotech. It had previously announced that the vaccine created antibodies in pigs during trials.
According to the Times of Israel, the oral vaccine will help countries with limited infrastructure to speed up vaccination.
If turned out to be productive, the Israeli-made oral Covid vaccine will ease out the process of vaccination and would also not be required a cold-storage set-up, manpower efforts that are needed for administering injections.
The Times of Israel quoted Oramed CEO Nadav Kidron saying that this could be a 'game changer'.
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Meanwhile, the government has recently said that vaccines currently being used in the country, are required to be stored within the temperature range of two to eight degrees Celsius.
In a written reply, the minister of state for health also said that there are 296 walk-in coolers and 57,640 ice-lined refrigerators in the country.
These are sufficient to meet the vaccine requirement of both COVID-19 vaccination as well as routine immunisation, Pawar said.
To a question on whether the government has made any assessment that the existing cold storage facility is sufficient to store anti-Covid vaccines, she said the National Cold Chain Management Information System is a digital database of cold chain equipment supplied to states and union territories.
"The cold chain space requirement is assessed using this database to strengthen additional cold chain space required for storing Covid vaccine over and above the cold chain space required for storing routine immunisation vaccines at temperature range of two degrees Celsius to eight degrees Celsius and at temperature range of -15 to -25 degrees Celsius," the minister said.
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