NEW DELHI, May 16: Amidst continuous declining trend in the number of daily new cases in the country, Bharat Biotech on Sunday claimed that its Covid-19 vaccine “Covaxin” has been found to be effective against coronavirus strains found in India and the UK.
Citing a study published in peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the Hyderabad-based vaccine major noted that vaccination with Covaxin produced neutralising titres against all key emerging variants tested, including B.1.617 and B.1.1.7, first identified in India and the UK, respectively.
Meanwhile, India reported 3,11,170 new cases in the last 24 hours till Sunday morning taking the overall tally to 2.46 crore. As many as 4,077 deaths were reported across the country. The toll now stands at 2,70,284, while active cases stand at 26.18 lakh.
Bharat Biotech said according to the study conducted by India’s National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research and published in the peer-reviewed journal, Covaxin “produced neutralising titres (meaning the concentration of antibodies) against all key emerging variants”.
“There was a modest reduction in neutralization by a factor of 1.95 was observed against B.1.617 variant compared to vaccine variant (D614G). Despite this reduction, neutralising titre levels with B.1.617 remain above levels expected to be protective,” read the excerpts highlighted by Bharat Biotech.
“Covaxin gets international recognition yet again by scientific research data published demonstrating protection against the new variants. Yet another feather in its cap,” tweeted Suchitra Ella, the co-founder and Joint Managing Director of Bharat Biotech. She also tweeted a link of the article in the journal.
Her tweet spurred questions on social media regarding the availability of Covaxin, which received emergency approval along with Oxford University’s Covishield in January. The vaccine was launched in clinical trial mode as its third phase of trial was pending. The Centre has already assured that it was willing to scale up production by roping in other companies willing to manufacture the vaccine.
There are concerns about the low vaccination numbers as experts warn of an impending third wave, which many fear may target children. Many experts have called for vaccinating all adults before that hoping that it might break the chain of transmission.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called on the Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to discuss the Covid situation in their respective states.
(Manas Dasgupta)