Covaxin, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech and the ICMR, is safe, according to preliminary results of the Phase 1 clinical trials, say reports.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is developing the vaccine candidate in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
On the race for Covid vaccine, Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech today said India has three such vaccines under development.
Vaccine development usually takes years and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. These steps are now overlapping in the race to find a vaccine for a global disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Human testing began in some cases before animal studies were finished.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has entered into advance Coronavirus vaccine deals with two more developers, securing a supply of another 90 million doses, should these vaccines become a reality. Before this, the UK had agreements with four other developers, for a combined supply of 250 million doses.
Also, Russia is set to roll out the world’s first approved coronavirus vaccine amid scepticism about its effectiveness and safety after less than two months of human testing.