Here are the COVID-19 vaccines being tested in India, and where they stand
There are at least three COVID-19 vaccines being tested in India including one by Bharat Biotech and one by Zydus Cadila.
- There are many companies in India who are trying their vaccines in a clinical phase.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that three Covid vaccine competitors in India are in the clinical phase of the trials. Given that we are almost seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and how finding a vaccine can take years, this advancement is cause for some cheer, despite the fact that there is a long road ahead.
The Oxford University candidate has been one of the leaders in the COVID-19 vaccine competitors world over. It is called ChAdOx1-S, which is a viral vector vaccine. The Pune-based Serum Institute of India has tied up with the university to run trials of the vaccine in India, and in agreement with AstraZeneca which will produce and market this vaccine in India.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN has finished stage 1 trials, and yielded an “empowering safety profile”. As per reports, Dr Savita Verma who was the principal examiner of the trial at the Post-Graduate Institute (PGI) of Medical Sciences in Rohtak, the subjects of the trial didn’t see adverse impacts. Phase 1 included 375 volunteers and was done at 12 organizations in the country.
PM Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech spoke about Covid-19 vaccines undergoing testing in India.
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) August 17, 2020
He said that three vaccines are currently being tested and lauded the role of scientists who have been working day and night to successfully produce a vaccine pic.twitter.com/57tqccuju1
The ZyCoV-D vaccine which has been created and is being tested by Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila had launched its phase 2 trial prior in August. Director of the company, Pankaj Patel said that all the subjects in the phase 1 clinical trial that was done earlier were observed for 24 hours after the dose was administered, and afterward for a week. The vaccine was found to be safe, he said. The phase 2 trial will include the vaccine being given to more than 1,000 healthy adults.
Some other companies including Indian Institute of Science-brooded startup Mynvax, Premas Biotech, Epygen Biotech, Luxmatra Innovations, Biological Evans are also in preclinical development phases of their separate COVID-19 vaccine competitors.
