Give them Nobel: Mahindra on report of UK firm developing pill-based COVID vaccine

New Delhi, Feb 03: Sharing a report on a UK-based biotech firm that is working on putting a COVID-19 vaccine into a pill, Indian billionaire businessman Anand Mahindra has referred it as "one of the most vital innovations the world needs".

"Don't know if there's any validity in this report. But would the Nobel Academy please give them a Nobel if they succeed?" the Mahindra Group Chairman tweeted.

He uploaded what looks like a news piece which claimed that a small biotech firm in West Sussex, England is working on putting a Covid-19 vaccine into a simple pill.

The text of the snippet reads: "IosBio, which is based in Burgess Hill, has developed a method of putting vaccines into pill form and is working with a US firm that has made an injectable vaccine that is going through human trials."

This pill was seen to be effective in tests on monkeys, it claimed.

Turns out, the oral vaccine will begin clinical trials on Americans this month and ImmunityBio is applying for regulatory approval to run tests in Britain too, according to an article in The New Zealand Herald.

"A pill-based vaccine would be far easier to transport and administer than injections and could drastically speed up the race to immunise the world's population," the article stated.

"With our capsule you wouldn't need medical professionals to administer the vaccine, you could send this out on Amazon Prime and have everyone vaccinated by Saturday," iosBio's chief executive Wayne Channing was quoted as saying.