India says hometown COVID-19 vaccine final trials could end within 8 weeks
23 November, 2020
India's health minister stated on Sunday (Nov 22) a good locally developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate could complete its final trials in per month or two, increasing hopes for an instant roll-out in a nation with the world's second-highest quantity of infections.
The state-run Indian Council of Medical Exploration (ICMR) and privately held Bharat Biotech this month started third-stage trials of COVAXIN, in an activity that could involve 26,000 volunteers. It's the most advanced Indian experimental vaccine.
"We are along the way of developing our indigenous vaccines, along the way of completing our third-phase trials in the next one or two a few months," Harsh Vardhan advised a web meeting on the pandemic.
He reiterated the government's plan was to immunise 200 million to 250 million Indians by July.
An ICMR scientist told Reuters previous this month the vaccine could be launched found in February or March, although Bharat Biotech separately told Reuters on Fri that results of the late-stage trials were expected sole between March and April.
Vardhan, however, said in September the federal government could opt for emergency vaccine authorisation, particularly for older people and persons in high-risk workplaces.
Indian officials have said they be prepared to count on COVAXIN and four other locally-tested candidates to regulate COVID-19, as they usually do not expect early on access to sufficient levels of those developed by Pfizer and Moderna.
The other experimental vaccines on trial in India will be the one being produced by AstraZeneca and Oxford University that's being created by the Serum Institute of India; Russia's Sputnik-V; Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D and last but not least the one that Biological E. Ltd is normally developing with Baylor University of Medicine and Dynavax Technology Corp.
Serum's CEO said on Friday the AstraZeneca vaccine could be sent to Indian healthcare personnel and the elderly by January.
India on Sunday recorded 45,209 new infections, taking the full total to 9.09 million, only behind that of the United States. Deaths rose by 501 to 133,227, with Delhi recording the best number of daily fatalities in the country over the last couple of days.
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