Novel antibody engineered product to treat COVID-19 cleared for clinical trials

VINCOV-19 is obtained after immunisation of horses with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus in combination with adjuvants

‘VINCOV-19’ — a novel therapeutic antibody engineered product, which is a collaborative effort of the University of Hyderabad (UoH), CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and Vins Bioproducts Ltd, has got approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) for clinical trials to test against the COVID-19 pandemic, on Tuesday. VINCOV-19 is an antibody product obtained after immunisation of horses with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus in combination with adjuvants. The development of antibodies triggered in the horses are purified and further processed to generate highly pure antibody fragment-based product — Fab2. Results have indicated that this product has a high neutralising capacity against SARS-CoV-2. Since neutralising antibodies could block the internalisation of SARS-CoV-2 to lung cells, it is postulated that their passive administration should render maximum clinical benefits if they are applied at the early stages of the disease, said an official spokesman of UoH. After signing the collaborative MoU between UoH, CCMB, and VINS on May 15 last year, the research groups at these organisations worked extensively towards standardisation of the viral propagation methodologies, bulk viral purification, immunological characterisation, and pre-clinal studies, which have shown promising results.