India’s first covid-19 vaccine, by Bharat Biotech, gets a go-ahead for human trials

The country’s ‘first’ indigenous covid-19 vaccine COVAXIN, developed by Bharat Biotech might hit the bull eye in eradicating SARS-CoV-2.

Human trials for India’s first covid-19 vaccine will start in July. Image courtesy: Shutterstock

Team Health Shots Updated: 30 Jun 2020, 10:47 am IST

Slowly but steadily India is gearing up to produce the first covid-19 vaccine. On 29th June 2020, Bharat Biotech took a step ahead when the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) gave a nod for the human trials of the vaccine. This SARS-CoV-2 medicine is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Earlier on May 8th 2020, they said that they have already developed human antibodies that can help in the manufacturing of the covid-19 vaccine.

“The collaboration with ICMR and NIV was instrumental in the development of this vaccine. The proactive support and guidance from CDSCO have enabled approvals to this project,” stated Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Dr Krishna Ella.

Dr Ella added:

We are proud to announce COVAXIN, India’s first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19. The collaboration with ICMR and NIV was instrumental in the development of this vaccine.
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“The proactive support and guidance from CDSCO have enabled approvals to this project. Our R&D and Manufacturing teams worked tirelessly to deploy our proprietary technologies towards this platform,” he added.

Human clinical trials to begin by July 2020
This means that we can hope that by the end of 2020 there might be an Indian vaccine for covid-19.

The Drug Controller General of India CDSCO (The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare granted permission to initiate Phase I & II Human clinical trials after the company submitted their results generated from pre-clinical studies, demonstrating safety, and immune response.

covid-19 vaccine — Covid-19 vaccine is under process. Image courtesy: Shutterstock

Other Indian biotech companies are also engaged in the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines including Zydus Cadila, and Serum Institute of India. Since the beginning of this month, Panacea Biotec is also in the fray.

So, we are keeping our fingers crossed here and hoping these trials will be a major success so this pandemic can come to an end.

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(With inputs from PTI)