New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday late night said that “Covaxin has drawn global attention. Covaxin is a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by ICMR-Bharat Biotech. It is now undergoing phase-3 trials”
𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-19 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐬 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. The results of the #COVAXIN Phase-2 human clinical trials can be accessed at https://t.co/jjl1WifW2q pic.twitter.com/VKfvjeZuOE
— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) December 24, 2020
On its official social media account – The ICMR said that “India’s indigenous vaccine has achieved remarkable feat. Data generated from within India underlines the impressive safety and immunogenicity profile of Covaxin and sparks Lancet’s interest in publishing them.”
“Encouraging Phase I and Phase II COVAXIN trial results have paved the path for Phase III Clinical Trial in India, which is currently on-going at 22 sites,” the ICMR added.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi has invited volunteers for the Phase III clinical trial of indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin.
On the Covaxin – AIIMS said that “AIIMS, New Delhi is a site for COVAXIN Phase III clinical trial. This is a whole-virion inactivated vaccine co-sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech,”
According to a media report “Covaxin showed long-term antibody and T-cell (immune) memory responses three months after the shot in phase 1 volunteers and tolerable safety outcomes in Phase 2 study, the city-based company has said, suggesting the antibodies may persist for six to 12 months. In phase 2, it also showed enhanced humoral and cell-mediated immune responses and the results were found in the safety and immunogenicity clinical trial of the vaccine candidate. Memory T cells are antigen-specific T cells that remain over a long term after an infection has been eliminated.”
AIIMS Centre for Community Medicine, Dr Sanjay K Rai informed through the advertisement that Phase I/II trials (safety and immunogenicity) have already been completed.
Seven Indian pharmaceutical companies race to develop a vaccine for deadly coronavirus. Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E are among the domestic pharma firms working on the coronavirus vaccines in India. Vaccines normally require years of testing and additional time to produce at scale, but scientists are hoping to develop a vaccine within months.
India reports 10.1 million coronavirus cases so far and claims 1.41 lakh deaths. The major benefit in India is – people are recovering very fast from the coronavirus and recovery rate has improved to 95.77 percent on December 25. India’s active caseload has further slipped under 3% today, comprising merely 2.78% of the total cases.
_Vinayak