India's Two COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates in Phase 1 and 2 of Trials, Govt Strategising on Their Distribution, Says NITI Aayog
Both the candidates, if cleared by the drug regulator, could be rolled out by as early as 2020-end or start of next year. The Indian government is gearing up for mass production of the vaccine shots considering the population of over 1.3 billion people in the nation.
New Delhi, July 21: Two indigenously developed vaccine candidates are under phase 1 and 2 of the trials, said a top official of the NITI Aayog. The government think-tank claimed that the Centre has begun strategising on the distribution of vaccine once they are developed. UK Signs Deals for 90 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses.
The vaccine candidates - Covaxin and ZyCoV-D - are being developed by the Bharat Biotechnology International Limited and Zydus Cadila respectively. Both the private pharmaceutical companies are based in India.
Both the candidates, if cleared by the drug regulator, could be rolled out by as early as 2020-end or start of next year. The Indian government is gearing up for mass production of the vaccine shots considering the population of over 1.3 billion people in the nation.
"India's two COVID19 vaccines are in phase 1 and 2 of trials. Discussions have already begun how will the vaccines be made available to all those who need it," said Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
Update by ANI
India, with a caseload of over 11.5 lakh COVID-19 cases, is expecting an early roll-out of the vaccine to achieve herd immunity. While the indigenously developed vaccines may take another six months for release, the government is also exploring the options of procuring vaccines being made by global pharmaceutical giants - that may be rolled out in next couple of months.
On the global front, a major success was achieved by Oxford University, whose vaccine candidate developed in coordination with pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, was found "successful" in the initial results of phase 3 trials. The UK government has approved the mass production, with nearly 100 million doses expected to be rolled out by September.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 21, 2020 06:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).