No Indian COVID vaccine this year, research cos focusing on effectiveness rather than launch date

No Indian COVID vaccine this year, research cos focusing on effectiveness rather than launch date

New Delhi: An Indian vaccine against COVID-19 is not likely this year.

Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, the two companies indigenously developing possible vaccines, indicated that they don’t want to hurry like Russia in bringing them out.

Besides effectiveness, Zydus Cadila will also ascertain for how long the vaccine will provide protection against COVID by conducting tests for at least a short period of time before launching it. These tests will take at least 4-6 months, the company said. Accordingly, the company’s 'ZyCov-D' vaccine can become a part of India's COVID immunisation programme only by March next year.

While it is not clear when Bharat Biotech’s vaccine will be ready, the company has said that quality and safety are more important than the launch timing of the vaccine it is developing. The company's Covaxin will enter the second phase of trials in September.

The results of the first-stage trials of both of these locally developed vaccines have been encouraging. Although the final report on the first-stage trials have not yet been submitted, a trial on more than 300 volunteers has shown that the two possible vaccines are safe as they did not produce any adverse side-effects.

However, details of their effectiveness are yet to be released. The second- and third-phase trials involving a larger number of volunteers are intended to confirm that they are effective.

The two companies were previously under pressure, including from the government, to expedite their COVID vaccine research. A letter from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which said that Covaxin, the first Indian vaccine candidate to enter human trials, would be released by Independence Day on August 15, had become controversial.

India looking at foreign vaccines, too

The Centre is taking steps to ensure that a vaccine against COVID developed anywhere in the world becomes available in India, too, if domestic efforts take time.

The potential vaccine from Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has produced the most promising results in the world so far and it is ready for the third phase of trials in India.

The Pune Serum Institute, which has a manufacturing contract with them, has already started manufacturing the vaccine. Apart from this, India has also started discussions with more foreign vaccine researchers. The most important of these is Moderna, a US company, whose vaccine candidate is in the final stages of trials. India is taking the nine other vaccine studies also seriously.

No Indian COVID vaccine this year, research cos focusing on effectiveness rather than launch date

India will consider the Russian vaccine only after detailed information about its trials is available.

Negotiations with companies on price

A panel of experts has held discussions with research companies and manufacturers on pricing and distribution of a COVID vaccine when it becomes available.

The committee convened the meeting, which was chaired by NITI Aayog member Dr V K Paul, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that a plan document was ready for distribution of a vaccine as soon as it is developed.

The government wants to involve local vaccine research companies also in mass production of any foreign vaccine that becomes available first. Accordingly, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila may also be roped in for manufacturing the vaccine.

The meeting was attended by officials from Serum Institute and Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, both based in Pune, and Hyderabad’s Biological E.

Currently, only the Serum Institute, which has an agreement with Oxford-AstraZeneca, is fully equipped for manufacturing a COVID vaccine.

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.