Hester Biosciences Ltd collaborates with IIT-G; hits upper circuit

Gujarat-based pharma company, Hester Biosciences Limited announced on Wednesday that it is joining hands with Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati to work on the vaccine development against COVID-19. The agreement between the two parties was signed on April 15, 2020.

The vaccine in development will be based on the recombinant avian paramyxovirus-based vector platform. The recombinant avian paramyxovirus-1 will be used to express the immunogenic protein of SARS CoV-2. The recombinant avian paramyxovirus-1 expressed that SARS-CoV-2 protein could be used as a vaccine candidate for further study.

The team at IIT Guwahati is headed by Dr Sachin Kumar, Associate Professor of Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering. The team has generated the recombinant avian paramyxovirus-1 based vaccine platform for classical swine fever and Japanese encephalitis. The role of the institute is to produce the recombinant vaccine candidate.

Speaking about the collaboration and role of Hester Biosciences Limited, Rajiv Gandhi, CEO & MD of Hester Biosciences said that Hester’s involvement would be from master seed development up to the release of the commercial vaccine.

Reacting to this announcement, the stock of Hester Biosciences was locked at its upper circuit of 20 per cent and thereby, trading was suspended at Rs 1,366.90 per share, up by 20 per cent or Rs 227.80 per share. The stock’s 52-week high is Rs 2,044.40 and the 52-week low is Rs 870 on BSE.