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?

Answer: B. Statements 2 and 3 are correct; Statement 1 is wrong. Statement 1 is WRONG. Covishield (manufactured by Serum Institute of India under license from AstraZeneca/Oxford University) is a VIRAL VECTOR vaccine, NOT an mRNA vaccine. It uses a modified chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAdOx1) as a vector to deliver the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein gene. mRNA vaccines include Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna; Covishield is fundamentally different platform. Statement 2 is CORRECT. SPUTNIK V is a VIRAL VECTOR vaccine using two different human adenoviruses (Ad26 for first dose, Ad5 for booster) to deliver the spike protein gene. Manufactured by Russia's Gamaleya Institute; distributed in India through Dr Reddy's. Statement 3 is CORRECT. COVAXIN (manufactured by Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad in partnership with ICMR) is an INACTIVATED whole-virion vaccine. SARS-CoV-2 is grown in Vero cells, then chemically inactivated and adjuvanted. This is a traditional vaccine platform similar to Hepatitis A vaccine. Source: ICMR / CDSCO vaccine platform documentation.