COVAXIN

Nagpur became one of the 12 cities in the country who would be performing human clinical trial of countrys 1st vaccine against COVID-19. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday said that they aim to launch country’s first indigenous Coronavirus vaccine ‘Covaxin,’ which is being developed in partnership with Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. The vaccine would be made available for public by August 15. A dozen institutes have been selected for the clinical trials of Covaxin?, government’s medical body team announced.

The vaccine is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and BBIL are jointly working for the pre-clinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine, the ICMR said in a letter to the institutes.

The ICMR talked about plans to launch the vaccine for public health use by August 15, Independence Day. It is envisaged to launch the vaccine for public health use latest by 15th August 2020 after completion of all clinical trials, said the research body.

The final outcome would entirely depend on the co-operation of all clinical trial sites involved in this project, the ICMR told the institutes, advising them to fasten the approvals related to clinical trials and ensure that subjects are enrolled starting of this week. Non-compliance will be viewed very seriously. Therefore, you are advised to treat this project on highest priority and meet the given timelines without any lapse, read ICMR’s letter.

As per PTI, apart from Odishas IMS and SUM Hospital here, the other 10 institutes selected for the clinical trial are located in King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam, University of Health Sciences in Rohtak, AIIMS in New Delhi, AIIMS in Patna, Jeevan Rekha Hospital in Belagavi, Gillurkar Multispecialty Hospital in Nagpur, Rana Hospital in Gorakhpur, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Center in Kattankulathur (Tamil Nadu), Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, Prakhar Hospital in Kanpur and consultant physician Sagar Vivek Redkar in Goa.

Scientists around the world have been racing to produce a vaccine for the deadly virus that has infected over 10 million, including 600,000 in India, and caused more than 500,000 deaths.

Until now, no vaccine has got the approval for commercial use against COVID-19. More than a dozen possible vaccines from over 100 are being developed globally and are to be tested on humans. Some of these developed vaccines have shown potential to cure in early-stage human trials.