Chennai: Following a letter from the Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research directing hospitals to fast-track the remaining trials of the indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 and a clarification later from the ICMR that quickening clinical trials was only meant to cut unnecessary red tape, questions are being raised as to whether the country would be able to meet the 15 August deadline of launching the world’s first coronavirus vaccine.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said the ICMR should be allowed to do its job, sans any controversy. “I am not commenting on the vaccine now. Let’s see how long it will take to develop the vaccine,” he reportedly said.
In the meantime, approval for human clinical trials for two made-in-India COVID-19 vaccine candidates – COVAXIN and ZyCov-D – marks the “beginning of the end” for the novel coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 1.12 crore people worldwide and left more than 5.3 lakh dead, the government said on Sunday.
Striking an optimistic note, a letter by the Ministry of Science and Technology said there were more than 100 vaccine candidates in the world currently, of which 11 were in human trials.
The letter added: “The nod by Drug Controller General of India, CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation), for conduct of human trial for vaccines, marks the beginning of the end.”