Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad based biotech company, is expected to begin human trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, COVAXIN, next week.
COVAXINs India’s first vaccine against the coronavirus and has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR( Indian Council of Medical Research) and NIV(National Institute of Virology), Pune, will be tested on more than 1,100 people in phase 1 and 2 of the clinical trials.
Last week, the inactivated vaccine received DCGI( Drug Control General of India) approval for phase 1 and 2 clinical trials. COVAXIN is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus isolated in NIV, Pune, and transferred to Bharat Biotech to develop into a vaccine candidate.
On July 2, ICMR Director chief wrote to 12 trial sites for the vaccine, stating that all clinical trials need to be completed by August 15. However, the August 15 target was criticised by experts who said that fast-tracking vaccine trials in four weeks could pose serious health risks. In a statement on Monday, the Indian Academy of Sciences said that while it wishes the vaccine is quickly made available for public use, the announced timeline is unfeasible and unrealistic.
On Sunday, the government said that six Indian companies are working on a vaccine for COVID-19, which has so far infected as many as 11,522,750 people and claimed at least 535,025 lives worldwide.
Writer: Thwishaa Mehta
07/07/2020
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