India’s first COVID-19 vaccine candidate COVAXIN gets drug regulator DCGI’s approval for the 1st and 2nd phase of clinical human trials to start in the month of July. This is one of the biggest achievements of the country as old developed countries are in a race to get the first vaccine to prevent the further spread of the pandemic.
The drug has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated in NIV, Pune, and transferred to Bharat Biotech. The firm then used it to work on developing an “inactivated” vaccine–a vaccine that uses a dead virus–at its high containment facility in Hyderabad.
Chairman and Managing Director of the company Dr. Krishna Ella said, “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.”
A day before, China’s military has received the green light to use a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by its research unit, and CanSino Biologics after clinical trials proved it was safe and somewhat efficient.
The Ad5-nCoV is one of the eight vaccine candidates being developed by Chinese companies and researchers approved to be moved into human trials for the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. The shot also won approval for human testing in Canada.
