India set to begin Covid vaccine trials soon

In a major breakthrough, India is set to begin phase 3 trials for an indigenously developed potential Covid-19 vaccine. This was announced by NITI Aayog member VK Paul. The name and details of this potential vaccine are not known.

“As far as Coronavirus vaccines are concerned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the country on Independence Day. He had said that three vaccines are being developed in India and are in different stages. One of them will enter phase 3 trial today or tomorrow,” said Paul.

The other two experimental vaccines are in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. India has two indigenous vaccines which are undergoing human trials. These are COVXIN and ZyCoV-D.

Covaxin is being developed by Bharat Biotech, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and National Institute of Virology, Pune. COVAXIN already completed phase 1 human trials in just one month. It had begun its Phase 2 human trials. Human trials of COVAXIN are going on in 12 sites across India.

Zydus Cadila is developing the other potential COVID vaccine ZyCoV-D. Meanwhile, the Pune-based Serum Institute is also beginning the phase 3 human trials of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s coronavirus candidate.

Around the world, there are eight vaccine candidates that have managed to enter the phase 3 trials. These are Oxford-Astra Zeneca, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNtech, Beijing Institute of Biological Products-Sinopharm, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products-Sinopharm, Sinovac, Cansino, and Russia’s Sputnik-V. Meanwhile, Sputnik-V has been given conditional registration and China’s Cansino has received patent and approval for military use.

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