Months after the Novel Coronavirus broke out, India finally developed a potential vaccine for the infection.
A Hyderabad based company, Bharat Biotech developed COVAXIN, India’s first vaccine candidate for COVID-19.
The cure was developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV.)
Speaking about the process, the SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated at NIV, Pune, and transferred to Bharat Biotech. The indigenous, inactivated vaccine has been developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 high containment facility in Genome Valley, Hyderabad.
The vaccine, COVAXIN could be India’s first vaccine for the Coronavirus if the human trials are successful.
Human trials for the vaccine are scheduled to begin in July in India.
The Drug Controller General of India, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare approved the vaccine trials on humans.
The trials would be conducted in two phases, phase I and phase II.
The approval was given after Bharat Biotech submitted a detailed result of a pre clinical studies, demonstrating safety and immune response.
Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech, said, “The collaboration with ICMR and NIV was instrumental in the development of this vaccine. The proactive support and guidance from CDSCO has enabled approvals to this project. We worked tirelessly to deploy our proprietary technologies towards this platform.”
Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said, “Our ongoing research and expertise in forecasting epidemics enabled us to successfully manufacture a vaccine for the H1N1 pandemic. We are continuing our focus on creating the only BSL-3 containment facilities for manufacturing and testing in India.”
In the past, Bharat Biotech has developed vero cell culture platform technologies, which have been helpful in several vaccines for polio, rabies, rotavirus, Japanese encephalitis, chikungunya, and Zika.
The virus has infected as many as 10.4 million people worldwide and claimed the lives of 5.4 lakh people.
In India, cases stand at 5,66,840 with as many as 16,893 deceased.
Stay tuned for further updates.
