With the spread of the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic happening unabated, the number of new cases affected by this Virus is only increasing rapidly, day-by-day in our country. However, looking at the positive side, there are about 10 COVID vaccine candidates which are in the final stages of testing and of these, two are being tested in India. The Serum Institute of India is carrying on the trials for AZD1222 - the vaccine candidate developed jointly by the Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca and the Oxford University of London. The Hyderabad-based company - Biological-E has tied up with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (from the group of Johnson & Johnson). These two companies have deals to locally manufacture the vaccine candidates being developed. Also, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is trialling the indigenous COVID vaccine candidate - Covaxin, developed by the company in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Earlier, Russia registered the world's first COVID-19 vaccine - Sputnik V, which was developed jointly by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Though there were a number of voices from the medical fraternity which expressed their reservations against Sputnik V for not being put through the mandatory clinical trials, the Russian President Vladimir Putin backed the vaccine and even had one of his daughters inoculated by it. Now, there is some more good news for Indians. The Indian pharma giant Dr. Reddy's Laboratory Ltd., has signed a deal with the RDIF to conduct the Phase 3 trials of their vaccine Sputnik V in India. The deal also states that on successful completion of these trials, Dr. Reddy's will receive 10 crore doses of the vaccine for distribution in our country.

Just about a week back, an announcement from the Indian government stated that it was in advanced level talks with Russia to conduct the Phase 3 trials of their Sputnik vaccine in India and also to produce the vaccine locally. Though many Indian companies expressed interest in being a part of the sourcing of the Russian vaccine, Dr. Reddy's is the first company to sign a deal for this. However, the Sputnik V vaccine will be put through the extensive Phase 3 trials on a large number of people to prove its efficacy and only upon meeting all the criterion of the domestic regulators, will it be approved for distribution in India. Now, this adds to the 3 vaccine candidates already under trial. Reports state that the Sputnik vaccine is based on the human adenoviral vector platform. With the Phase 3 trials for this vaccine already underway in Russia, the delivery of the vaccine can be expected to happen towards the middle or late of 2021! Stay tuned for updates...