India may have another vaccine against COVID-19 in its arsenal as Russia's Sputnik V has applied for the Drugs Controller General's (DCGI) nod for stage III clinical trials in India, News18 reported.

"Vaccine is meeting safety endpoint," the company said.

This comes after Dr Reddy's Laboratories on January 11 said that Phase III trials for the vaccine candidate has been recommended by the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB).

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“The DSMB has reviewed the safety data from the phase 2 clinical trial of the Sputnik V vaccine and recommended the phase 3 recruitment and continuation of the clinical trial without any modifications,” Dr Reddy’s said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Sputnik V applies for Phase III clinical trials in India: Report

“The DSMB has reviewed the safety data from the phase 2 clinical trial of the Sputnik V vaccine and recommended the phase 3 recruitment and continuation of the clinical trial without any modifications,” Dr Reddy’s said.

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