Which one of the following Indian institutes was approved by the Drugs Controller General of India for conducting human trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate?
- (a)Bharat Biotech
- (b)AIIMS
- (c)Serum Institute of India
- (d)National Institute of Epidemiology
Correct — C, Serum Institute of India. The Pune-based Serum Institute is the Indian partner for the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate, and the Drugs Controller General of India cleared it to run the Indian human trials of that vaccine in 2020. The vaccine it went on to make under licence was Covishield, the Indian version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca product — a viral-vector vaccine built on a modified chimpanzee adenovirus, ChAdOx1, carrying the gene for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Serum Institute is the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses, which is why the Oxford group turned to it for volume manufacture rather than to a research institute or a hospital.
- (a)Bharat Biotech — The Hyderabad company behind the other Indian vaccine, Covaxin, developed with the Indian Council of Medical Research. Covaxin is an inactivated whole-virion vaccine of Indian origin, not the Oxford candidate.
- (b)AIIMS — A hospital and medical institute. AIIMS took part in Covid vaccine trials as a clinical site enrolling volunteers, but a trial site is not the institute the regulator licenses to conduct the trial of a product it will manufacture.
- (d)National Institute of Epidemiology — An ICMR institute at Chennai that works on disease surveillance and epidemiological research. It does not develop or manufacture vaccines.
Covid-19 vaccines were built on three main platforms. Inactivated vaccines use whole killed virus, the oldest approach, and Covaxin is one. Viral-vector vaccines put the gene for a viral protein inside a harmless carrier virus, which is what the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and Sputnik V do. Messenger RNA vaccines deliver the instructions directly in a lipid envelope, as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna do. India licensed none of the mRNA products for domestic mass use in that first phase; its programme rested on Covishield and Covaxin.
Sort the four options by what each organisation actually is and the answer falls out — a vaccine manufacturer, a research institute, a hospital, a surveillance institute. Only one of them makes vaccines at scale. The pairing to hold is Covishield with Serum Institute and Oxford-AstraZeneca, Covaxin with Bharat Biotech and ICMR. Anchor to the exam and note the trap that UPSC set two years later: Covishield is a viral-vector vaccine, not an mRNA one, and calling it mRNA is the commonest error on this topic. One printed detail worth noticing is that the paper hyphenates the developer as Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is the usual form.
- Serum Institute of India, Pune, manufactures Covishield, the Indian version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
- Covishield is a viral-vector vaccine using a modified chimpanzee adenovirus, ChAdOx1, carrying the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein gene.
- Covaxin is Bharat Biotech's inactivated whole-virion vaccine, developed with the ICMR.
- Sputnik V is also a viral-vector vaccine; Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna use messenger RNA.
- The Drugs Controller General of India is the regulator that approves clinical trials and grants marketing authorisation.
Only one of the four is in the business of making vaccines by the hundred million doses.
- Calling Covishield an mRNA vaccine — the standard error, and UPSC has tested it.
- Confusing a trial site with the trial's sponsor or the product's manufacturer.
- Mixing up Covaxin, which is Indian in origin, with Covishield, which is licensed from Oxford-AstraZeneca.
As an institution-to-product pick like this one, or as a pairs item matching vaccines with their platforms.
In the context of vaccines manufactured to prevent COVID-19 pandemic, consider the following statements: 1. The Serum Institute of India produced COVID-19 vaccine named Covishield using mRNA platform. 2. Sputnik V vaccine is manufactured using vector based platform. 3. COVAXIN is an inactivated pathogen based vaccine. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
Confirms the manufacturer pairing this question turns on, and then tests the platform. Serum Institute did make Covishield, but it is a viral-vector vaccine and not an mRNA one, which is why statement 1 there fails.
Consider the following pairs of vaccine and category/type: 1. Covaxin : Inactivated pathogen-based vaccine 2. Covishield : mRNA vaccine 3. Sputnik V : Viral vector-based vaccine Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 1 and 3 only
The same three vaccines set as pairs two years later, with the identical trap. Covaxin inactivated, Sputnik V viral vector, and Covishield wrongly labelled mRNA.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Covaxin, India's indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine, was developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with
- (a)the Indian Council of Medical Research
- (b)the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
- (c)the Department of Biotechnology alone
- (d)the World Health Organization
Answer(a) the Indian Council of Medical Research — with its National Institute of Virology, which isolated the virus strain.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine uses which one of the following platforms?
- (a)Messenger RNA
- (b)Inactivated whole virion
- (c)Non-replicating viral vector
- (d)Live attenuated virus
Answer(c) Non-replicating viral vector — a modified chimpanzee adenovirus carrying the spike protein gene.