Central Drug Research Institute has inked an MoU with King George's Medical University, Lucknow to sequence the virus strains obtained from COVID-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh. Initially, the Lucknow-based lab will sequence the virus strains from the samples of a few patients. As of now, eight different variants of the virus are known to be causing the COVID-19 infection. <br />''<br />''A team has been put into place for analyzing whether changes to the viral sequences, if any, will impact the proposed treatment strategies.<br />'' <br />'' Therapeutics or repurposing of drugs to fight against COVID-19 is another vertical of the five verticals formulated by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research where the researchers are trying to repurpose some already existing drugs that have been used by clinicians.<br />'' <br />''  <br />