(Image source from: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

In the global search for a vaccine regarding the novel coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak, an overseas citizen of India and his team has grown the first batch of the virus outside China and is said to be serving as a vaccine in order to prevent the deadly coronavirus from affecting.

The virus has been produced in sufficient stocks in order to cater to the forthcoming studies in the high- security lab of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia.

Although the isolation of the virus from the human sample has been done by the researchers at the Doherty Institute of Australia during last week, the growth of the virus at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research is said to be important as it is said to have the mega scale that is needed to conduct the pre- clinical studies.

Professor SS Vasan who is the principal investigator of the pre- clinical response of the CSIRO in partnership with the Coalition for Emergency Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), has confirmed the development of the virus that serves as a vaccine as a response to the pre- clinical usage for the coronavirus. The Dangerous Pathogens Team leads the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia.

Professor SS Vasan has said that the diagnosis, surveillance and response are also been worked on by his team at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory. He says that the other part of the manufacturing in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization is providing support to the scale up of vaccine antigens that are being developed by the University of Queensland.

“We thank our Doherty institute colleagues who shared their isolate with us promptly. It is quicker to work with the real virus to expedite pre- clinical studies on the relative efficacy of vaccine candidates under development,” said Professor SS Vasan to Times Of India.

Vasan has described the virus being helpful in accelerating the development and evaluation of therapeutics in order to complement the vaccines along with fueling the essential vaccine pre- clinical studies.

The coronavirus is recorded to have exclaimed around 563 lives in China and the health officials have said that around 28,018 cases have been confirmed, as reported on Thursday.

The coronavirus is a deadly virus that has been spreading world wide and the first case of the coronavirus has been recorded in the Wuhan city of China. It has been claiming lives of several infected people and has spread across 25 countries as of now.

The World Health Organization has mentioned the coronavirus as zoonotic. Zoonotic is a term that is used to describe a virus that has been transmitted from animals to the human beings and it would spread from one human being to another.

By Shrithika Kushangi