India may get fourth Covid-19 vaccine by August, says govt official

A man receives a vaccine for COVID-19 outside the shrine of Sufi saint Shiekh Abdul Qadir Jeelani in Srinagar. (AP)Premium
A man receives a vaccine for COVID-19 outside the shrine of Sufi saint Shiekh Abdul Qadir Jeelani in Srinagar. (AP)
 2 min read . Updated: 21 Apr 2021, 05:15 PM IST Staff Writer

India hopes to get Hyderabad-based Biological E's indigenous Covid-19 vaccine by August this year. Biological E Ltd is done with phase 1 and phase 2 trials. Now, they are ready for phase 3 trails.

"Phase 1, phase 2 trials of Indian vaccine of Biological E have finished and they'll soon go into phase 3. This is a very significant development as they have a capacity of 7 crore/ 70 million vaccines per month," NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul said today.

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Biological E Ltd will manufacture 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines including the one developed by Johnson & Johnson under the Quad Vaccine Partnership, a White House press note had earlier said.

"The United States, through the DFC (Development Finance Corporation), will work with Biological E Ltd, to finance increased capacity to support Biological E's effort to produce at least 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL), including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine," the statement said.

Along with the Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, the firm has been one of the most active vaccine developers from India during the pandemic, developing a protein subunit vaccine developed by US-based Baylor College of Medicine and mass manufacturing another by Johnson & Johnson.

Biological E Ltd is the largest manufacturer of tetanus vaccines and snake venom antidotes in India.

More Covid vaccines on the way

  • Gujarat-based Zydus Cadila; the second indigenous vaccine is expected by August.
  • American company Novavax, with which the Serum Institute of India has tied up; the SII's second vaccine may be rolled out in India by September.
  • Bharat Biotech, the company's second vaccine which is an intranasal shot; is likely to be available by October.

At present, India has given Emergency Use Authorisation to three vaccine candidates - indigenously manufactured vaccines (Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech), and a third vaccine (Sputnik) that while presently manufactured abroad will eventually be manufactured in India.

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