By the dawn of July 4 India ranked up as the fourth highest affected country in the world with over 6 lakh cases of coronavirus. While the numbers continue to increase, the nation’s first COVID 19 vaccine candidate has received an approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to begin phase 1 and phase 2 human trials.
Covaxin, a vaccine candidate against Sars-Cov-2 (the virus which causes the coronavirus disease), has been developed by Bharat Biotech International Ltd and Zydus Cadila in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).
Bharat Biotech is among seven Indian firms working on COVID-19 vaccines. The Hyderabad-based biotechnology giant has said that the trials will start from July in more than a thousand subjects in multiple sites in the country.
As per the information, the potential vaccine shows a “strong immune response” in animal studies and the antibodies produced were able to completely neutralize the virus.
(Internet Inputs)