ICMR picks 6 firms for monkeypox vaccines

The Indian Council of Medical Research has selected six pharmaceutical firms to make monkeypox vaccines. These companies are: Serum Institute of India, Biological E, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Hester Bioscience Ltd, Indian Immunologicals Ltd and Reliance Life Sciences.
Another 14 companies have been finalized for manufacturing diagnostic kits required for testing monkeypox. These include Tata Medical and Diagnostics, Siemens Healthcare and Mylab Discovery Solutions.
India’s confirmed monkeypox cases now stand at 19. Monkeypox, a self-limiting disease, is characterized by fever with an unexplained acute rash all over the body.
Other symptoms include headache, swollen lymph nodes, muscle and body aches, back pain and profound weakness.
“These companies will now work closely with ICMR NIV where researchers have isolated the first strain of monkeypox virus strain and transfer the strain to these companies to help develop a vaccine and kits for monkeypox. These qualified companies have been requested to get in touch with us at the earliest for further steps,” said an ICMR scientist aware of the matter.
Source: livemint