4 years ago
India’s first potential indigenous coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine, Covaxin, has been jointly developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL).
ICMR had written to 12 institutes where human trials are to be held for the vaccine, Covaxin, ordering them to secure necessary approvals from internal committees and recruit people for clinical tests by July 7with a warning that “non-compliance will be viewed very seriously”.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is among the seven Indian firms working on Covid-19 vaccines. It was the first to get the regulatory nod to begin phase 1 and phase 2 human trials to test the vaccine for efficacy and safety.
Zydus Cadila has also got an approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for human clinical trials for ZyCov-D, its indigenously developed vaccine candidates against Sars-Cov-2, which causes Covid-19.
Before the two Indian vaccines, Covaxin and ZyCov-D, 18 experimental Covid-19 vaccines are in various phases of human trials across the world.
One of the leading candidates is AZD1222, which has been developed by the Jenner Institute of University of Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company.
Behind AZD1222 is the MRNA-1273 vaccine developed by Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and taken up for production by the US-based Moderna pharmaceutical.
AstraZeneca and Moderna have already entered into an agreement with Indian manufacturers for production of the Covid-19 vaccines.
