New Delhi: The indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been doing well in their clinical trials currently undergoing in different sites across India, said officials in the Union Health Ministry to ETV Bharat on Tuesday.
"The two indigenous vaccines BBV152 and ZyCov-D are presently at stage two of clinical trials and both the vaccines have shown excellent safety," said officials.
Going by the development of vaccine candidates' clinical trial, it is expected that the vaccine will be ready for use by early next year.
Vaccine BBV152 has been developed by Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL).
Its phase I clinical trials along with parallel studies in hamsters and rhesus macaques have been completed.
"The trial has revealed excellent safety of the candidate vaccine. Immunogenicity testing is in progress," officials said adding that it's phase II clinical trial are also ongoing.
The second vaccine candidate ZyCov-D has been developed by Cadila Healthcare Ltd.
Its pre-clinical toxicity studies were conducted in small animals: mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs.
The Serum Institute of India (SII) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have partnered for clinical development of two global vaccine candidates.
ChAdOx1-S, a vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca is at phase II and III clinical trials in India by SII.
ICMR will start the clinical trial of glycoprotein subunit nanoparticle adjuvanted vaccine, being developed by Novavax of USA.
Its trial is expected to start in the second half of October.
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Interestingly, the Government of India is in talks with the Russian government too for phase III clinical trial of Sputnik-V.
The Indian Drugmaker, Dr Reddy's Lab, has joined hands with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to conduct clinical trials of the Sputnik-V as well as its distribution.
"India's drug regulator has asked the private entity (Dr Reddy's) to provide more document for conducting clinical trials in India," said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan.
However, officials said that while the government and industry are trying their best to make available a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 at the earliest.
Significantly, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan has recently said that COVID-19 vaccine will be available in India by early next year.
The centre is working on plans for building capacities in HR, training, supervision etc on a massive scale for vaccine distribution.
"Government plans to receive and utilise 400-500 million COVID dose. We target to cover 20-25 crore people by July 2021," said Vardhan.
Reacting over the development, Dr Giridhar Gyani, Director-General of the Association of Health Care Providers (AHPI) told ETV Bharat that central government is planning to procure and distribute vaccine on a huge scale.
"Our strong point is that we are developing these vaccines scientifically and keeping all protocols in mind. All the COVID-19 vaccine trials sites in India are following the protocols mandated by ICMR," said Dr Gyani.
Dr Gyani, who is also a member of the government's COVID-19 task force said that health ministry is also preparing a format for priority population groups to receive the vaccine.
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