The COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic has been spreading its deadly roots across all the countries of the world and teams of researchers and scientists are working round the clock to identify a vaccine to end this Virus. While there are about 160+ vaccine candidates being developed in various countries, only about 10 vaccines are close to the production stage and are in various stages of clinical trials. Russia had recently registered the world's first ever COVID vaccine Sputnik V, which had been developed jointly by the Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Ministry of Defense! However, as this vaccine hasn't gone through the phase 3 of clinical trials, the rest of the medical fraternity are still unsure about the efficacy of this vaccine.
India has been developing its own COVID vaccine. This vaccine, named Covaxin, is being jointly developed by the Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)! Earlier, we had updated that this vaccine had successfully entered the Phase 1 of clinical trials and now we have some more good news! A report states that the Phase 1 clinical trials of Covaxin have returned successful results and that the Phase 2 trials would begin in September! Dr. Savita Verma, the Principal Investigator who is leading the trials at PGI Rohtak, has said that no adverse events have been observed in any of the volunteers who were injected with the vaccine at the trial site. This proves that the indigenously developed Covaxin is safe for usage.
Dr. Savita Verma also stated, "As of now, we know that it is safe. The second step is to know how effective the vaccine is, for which we have already started collecting samples!" The Phase 1 human clinical trials for Covaxin saw 375 volunteers participating in it, across 12 different sites in our country and this is expected to be fully complete by the end of August. If the trials succeed completely, the production of the vaccine could be started and it could be ready for public usage, by the first half of 2021 itself. Sanjay Rai, the Principal Investigator for the trials at AIIMS Delhi, has also given the thumbs up for the vaccine's safety. He said, "We are in the process of giving a second dose to the healthy volunteers and so far, we have not seen any unusual event in patients. It is safe!" Some reports state that the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) could be selected as one of the sites for the Phase 2 trials of Covaxin! Stay tuned for updates...