Covaxin in third phase, shows promising results

MYSURU: Here is some cheering news. Covaxin, the Make in India vaccine, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, is showing promising results.

This comes amid reports that the hope for an early access to Covid-19 vaccinations being developed by foreign firms are fading for the country due to extremely low-temperature requirements for storage or massive pre-orders by the developed countries.

Covaxin is currently the most promising among indigenous vaccines and has initiated its third phase clinical trials recently among 26,000 volunteers and is charted as the first efficacy study in the country.

Now, the challenge studies on monkeys and hamsters in which the animals were infected with the virus after vaccinating them found that the animals on trial had developed protection against the virus in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts, according to Dr Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech.

Speaking at the international conference on the Covid-19 vaccine held by the JSS Research Foundation on Saturday, Dr Ella said this is remarkable since many other vaccine candidates only trigger protection from the pandemic causing virus in the lower respiratory tract alone due to which those who are vaccinated can harbour the virus in their upper respiratory tract and as a result they can be still transmitting the virus.

Dr Ella said with the two-dose vaccine, there are going to be challenges in procuring syringes since India alone would need 2.6 billion syringes and needles to administer it.

However, he said, they have now partnered with Washington University which has done studies using a vaccine that can be delivered through the nose as a solution and their studies have shown positive results.

This vaccine was in the news after reports of a volunteer who took it developed adverse effects, which the company had said was not linked to the vaccine.

At the event, Dr Suresh Jadhav of Serum Institute which has partnered to mass-produce many of the front -running vaccine candidates, said they are ready to produce 50-60 million doses of the Oxford University- AstraZeneca vaccine candidate Covishield every month after January and 80-100 million doses before that if the emergency permission is received.

He also pointed out the challenges faced by vaccine manufacturers with the hesitation of governments in the developing world to stockpile vaccines, which makes it difficult for them to have agreements with secondary suppliers.