Gagandeep Kang: A sane voice in the time of Covid-19 vaccine uncertainty

Gagandeep Kang: A forthright voice keeping an eye on Indian vaccine

As a ten-year-old school kid, Gagandeep Kang wanted to be an air hostess, thanks to a career advice in an illustrated classics comic book that she read from her uncle’s collection. Having never boarded a plane, she immediately fell for it. The dream, however, didn’t last long as at an age of 15 she developed an eye problem that forced her to put on a pair of glasses.

Fortunately, by then she had picked up interests in science. Because of her father’s transferable job in the Indian Railways, Kang grew up in small towns of West Bengal like Liluah, Kanchrapara and Adra besides Alipore and Garden Reach in Kolkata. With support from her mechanical engineer father, she set up a laboratory in the house and once nearly blasted the roof in an experiment to generate hydrogen. “Exploring the natural environment, having a microscope, cutting up leaves and observing them was what I did for fun,” she once said in an interview.

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The love for science and deep interest to solve problems was instrumental in making Kang the first Indian woman Fellow of the Royal Society, thanks to her two-decade-long research on typhoid and rotavirus vaccines. Being the vice-chair of the Board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a board member for the International Vaccine Institute and former director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Kang’s opinion about vaccines carry weight around the world.

That’s the reason people took note of Kang’s outspoken views on India’s first homegrown Covid-19 vaccine that received a highly unusual approval for commercial use without the efficacy data. She said she had no problem volunteering for the Covaxin — the Covid-19 vaccine made by Bharat Biotech, a company with which Kang has a long association — but won’t take the vaccine without efficacy data as the government wants people to do.

“I have never seen anything like this,” was her opinion on the unprecedented clearance given by the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation to Covaxin. On Twitter, she countered public health researcher Chandrakant Lahariya with whom she co-authored a book on Covid-19 when he scouted for scientific justification behind the CDSCO decision.

"For the last 20 years, I focussed on vaccines. Now as a scientist I can’t be blind. We must look at the evidence before making a decision. As a scientist, I need to see the data before making any recommendations. Why the decision on Covaxin was not deferred till the evidence came. If we are changing the goalpost for one vaccine, can we change it for others!” Kang told DH.

For years, researchers followed the standard three phases of the clinical trial process for evaluating new drugs and vaccines. The 2019 Clinical Trial Rules indeed have provisions to bring in new drugs or vaccines in case of an emergency. But with the epidemic on the wane since mid-September, was it the right time to invoke those provisions?

"Though it is messy, Serum’s Covishield has some efficacy data, which is completely absent in the case of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Why the regulator could not wait for another 6-8 weeks to get Bharat Biotech’s efficacy data. What was going to change in those 6-8 weeks,” wondered Kang.

The Christian Medical College, Vellore, professor used her Twitter handle to raise many other questions related to the opacity surrounding the Indian vaccine approval process.

“The efficacy data being accepted for Covishield is from phase 3 of the UK/Brazil AstraZeneca study and as per the September 2020 guidance from CDSCO. Problem with Covishield is that the bridging study of 1,600 is not completed, only partial data submitted,” she tweeted.

On the research front, Kang is busy collecting nationwide data on typhoid in order to convince the government that something needs to be done immediately as a superbug may be lurking somewhere. She is also into a major project to improve birth outcomes and is a member of a Lancet Commission to suggest a 10-year pathway to improve universal healthcare in India.

Since her elevation to the venerated precincts of the Royal Society, Kang is often questioned on women scientists in India. “In India, we do get a lot of women in science at the beginning but then we start to lose them because of other compulsions like marriage and children. The system needs to provide support and flexibility to those promising women so that we can have enough women as faculty in any department,” she observed.