The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, is collaborating with Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company Hester Biosciences Limited, to develop a vaccine against coronavirus.

The vaccine is expected to be ready by the end of this year to start animal studies. At present, the work is at an early stage.

An IIT Guwahati statement said on Wednesday, “The vaccine will be based on 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 expressing the SARS-CoV-2 protein could be used as a vaccine candidate for further study.” Sachin Kumar, associate professor with the department of biosciences and bioengineering, IIT Guwahati, said, “It is too early to comment on the efficacy and immunogenicity of the Covid-19 vaccine. We will be able to reveal more details about this vaccine after the results of animal studies are obtained.”

Shares of Hester Biosciences hit the upper circuit on Wednesday after it announced collaboration with IIT-G. The agreement was signed on April 15.

The institute said its role would be to produce the recombinant vaccine candidate.

Hester Biosciences CEO and MD Rajiv Gandhi said, “Hester’s involvement will be from master seed development upto the release of the commercial vaccine.”