Q. 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?

  • 1 and 2 only
  • 2 and 3 only
  • 1 and 3 only
  • 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Covishield
  • Covishield vaccine is based on the platform which uses a recombinant, replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus vector encoding the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) glycoprotein.
  • The Serum Institute of India produced a COVID-19 vaccine named Covishield but not using mRNA platform.
    • It has been prepared using the viral vector platform. In the vaccine, a chimpanzee adenovirus – ChAdOx1 – has been modified to enable it to carry the COVID-19 spike protein into the cells of humans.
    • This cold virus is basically incapable of infecting the receiver, but can very well teach the immune system to prepare a mechanism against such viruses.
    • The same technology was used to prepare vaccines for viruses like Ebola.
  • On its administration, the genetic material of the part of coronavirus is expressed which generates an immune response.
  • Covishield vaccine is developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. It is the Indian variant of AZD1222. Covishield vaccine is developed and manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India(SII) through a license from AstraZeneca and Oxford.
  • It is supposed that the immune system of the body will recognize this protein as a threat and work on building antibodies against it.
Sputnik V
  • It is the world’s first registered vaccine based on a well-studied human adenovirus vector platform.
  • The Sputnik V vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow.
  • It uses two different viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus) in humans.
  • The adenoviruses are weakened so they cannot replicate in humans and cannot cause disease.
  • The gene from adenovirus, which causes the infection, is removed while a gene with the code of a protein from another virus spike is inserted.
Covaxin
  • Covaxin is an inactivated viral vaccine.
  • Covaxin vaccine, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology and uses a different platform.
  • Covaxin is an “inactivated” vaccine that uses the killed SARS-CoV-2 virus and has no potential to infect or replicate once injected and just serves to uplift an immune response.
  • They contain inactivated viruses, which cannot infect a person but still can teach the immune system to prepare a defence mechanism against the active virus. 
  • It is developed with Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell-derived technology.
  • That is, it contains inactivated viruses that cannot infect a person, but still can teach the immune system to prepare a defence mechanism against the active virus.