Centre invites bid for developing monkeypox vaccine

The Indian government has invited bids from pharmaceutical companies for jointly developing vaccine for monkeypox in India. It has also asked diagnostic kit manufacturers to come forward to work in partnership with the govt to manufacture kits for monkeypox.

The development of both will done under public-private partnership and last date for submitting bids is August 10.

India has reported four confirmed cases of monkeypox so far.

The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune under ICMR has isolated monkeypox virus from the clinical specimen of a patient which can pave the way for development of diagnostic kits and vaccines against the disease, officials said on Wednesday.

Also watch: 21-day isolation, keeping lesions fully covered: Centre's guidelines for monkeypox patients

The virus isolation enhances India's capacity to do research and development in many other directions, Dr Pragya Yadav, a senior scientist at NIV, said.