Indian pharma firm develops vaccine in capsule form, doctors hopeful of faster distribution

> Premas Biotech's oral vaccine candidate, in partnership with Oramed > Pharmaceuticals overcomes most disadvantages associated with needle > vaccines. #Oral #vaccines 

candidate offer easy storage, reduced > costs, needle-free administration & faster > distribution.https://t.co/QciMDAokly > — Premas Biotech (@PremasBiotech) March 23, 2021

"We are very excited about our oral vaccine candidate's potential to help end the pandemic", said Nadav Kidron, the Chief Executive Officer of Oramed, in a media statement. 

"An oral COVID-19 vaccine would eliminate several barriers to rapid, widescale distribution. While ease of administration is critical today to accelerate inoculation rates, an oral

vaccine could become even more valuable in the likely case that a COVID-19 vaccine may be required annually or biannually like the standard flu shot", it stated. While animal trials are

already in progress, human trials could begin by June, it added.   Meanwhile, the development has stirred hope and excitement among the medical fraternity and other stakeholders. Dr Sanjeev

Sinha, Professor of Medicine at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, told Sputnik, "Definitely an oral vaccine in the form of a capsule will help because

there will be no control on temperature that will be required". "We need to keep the vaccines in a fridge as they require certain temperatures", he added.  Suggesting that

oral vaccines can be administered under direct observation of doctors as is done for tuberculosis medicines in the country, Dr Sinha added, "the government can easily transport these in

the periphery region, no nursing support will be required and even basic health workers will be able to administer it". "There will be fewer side effects and will be easy to

administer. Right now people have to wait for half an hour at the hospital facility to ensure there are no side effects after the injection", he added.   Terming the development of an

oral vaccine a "great innovation" Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon Limited - Asia's leading Biopharmaceuticals enterprise, took to Twitter to heap praise

on the endeavour. ​India's coronavirus caseload has now surged to 11,734,058 with 47,262 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said

Wednesday morning. Total deaths due to the infection in the country now stand at 160,441. At present, there are 368,457 active cases in the country, with the recovery rate dropping to 95.67

percent, according to the ministry's data. Achieving a landmark milestone, India has administered more than 50 million COVID-19 jabs so far.