NEW DELHI, Dec 16: Very good news for India. “Covaxin” has produced “robust immune response” against the Corona disease and showed that “majority of the adverse events” were mild and got resolved soon.
Covaxin is the indigenous Corona vaccine being developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. Though it is too early to rejoice because the vaccine is only going through the phase I trial but the results showed so far was encouraging.
The company on Wednesday released the results of the Phase 1 trials of its ‘Covaxin’ which “produced a robust immune response against the disease and showed that the majority of the adverse events were mild and got resolved.” Another good news was that the “vaccine is being stored between 2-8 degrees Celsius and further efficacy trials are underway.” The other world leader in the section, Pfizer vaccine, required to be stored in minus 70 degrees Celsius.
The results of the first phase of Covaxin- which Bharat Biotech is developing in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) comes a day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) had said it was examining the application submitted by the company seeking emergency use authorisation of its vaccine.
Emergency approval for any vaccine or drug can only be granted once the regulatory body carries out an assessment of its safety and effectiveness, based on the data obtained from the efficacy trials.
Earlier, Bharat Biotech was told by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on emergency use authorization of vaccines that it needs to submit more data on Covaxin before it can be granted approval.
Meanwhile, India along with the United Kingdom launched a virtual vaccines hub which will share best practice for clinical trials and foster innovation besides helping in the shared fight against Covid-19 pandemic. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab currently visiting India announced that experts from the two countries would join forces through a new virtual hub to deliver vaccines for coronavirus and other deadly viruses.
India on Wednesday had registered 26,382 new Covid-19 cases and 387-related fatalities which pushed the overall tally to over 9.9 million. The active cases stand at 332,002 and are declining steadily while 9.45 million people have recovered from the disease till now, the union health ministry release on Wednesday said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
