New Delhi: Human clinical trials for Covaxin, India’s first potential indegenous vaccine for the novel coronavirus, have been initiated on 375 volunteers across the country. The vaccine is developed by Bharat Biotech International Limited(BBIL) along with India Council of Medical Research(ICMR) and National Institute of Virology(NIV).
Covaxin is an ”inactivated” vaccine, which is developed using the particles of the covid-19 virus that were killed, making them unable to infect further. Injecting definite doses of these particles transferred from asymptomatic patients helps in building antibodies against the dead virus, the vaccine manufacturer said.
During the first phase of the trial, it will be checked whether or whether not the people who have been vaccinated show adverese effect in their body.
Covaxin has already underwent successful pre-clinical testing on animals such as guniea pigs and mice to see the efficacy and safety before initiating human trials.
According to the reports, twelve hospitals in different parts of the country have begun the testing process.
The hospitals where the vaccine trails have kick started are — All India Institute of Medical Sceinces(AIIMS) Delhi, AIIMS Patna, Jeevan Rekha Hospital in Belgum, Gillurkar Multispeciality Hospital in Nagpur, Rana Hospital in Gorakhpur, King George Hospital in Vishakhapatnam, SRM Hospital in Chennai, Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneshwar, Prakhar Hospital in Kanupur and a hospital in Goa.
Bharat Biotech has envisaged to launch the vaccine for public health use by 15th August after completing all the mandatory clinical trials. The company is a worldwide supplier of four billion doses of infections like rotavirus, hepatitis, zika, Japanese encephalitis and others.
Besides covaxin, six more vaccines for coronavirus that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives have been developed across the country.
