The five candidates include Russia’s Sputnik-V, whose “Phase II going to Phase III” tests in India will begin next week in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, said Vinod Paul, head of a committee advising the Prime Minister.
The other experimental vaccines are the one being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India; Bharat Biotech and Covaxin from the Indian government; ZyCoV-D from Zydus Cadila and finally one that is being developed by Biological E. Ltd in conjunction with Baylor College of Medicine and Dynavax Technologies Corp.
Paul told a news conference that the late-stage trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine in India had gone well and were almost complete. The country of 1.35 billion people has reported 8.87 million infections, second only to the United States, and 130,519 deaths as a result of Covid-19.
“We are very hopeful of success with all five vaccines,” Paul said Tuesday. “They are easy platforms, the availability of doses is very high. They will be able to control our pandemic in terms of the amount of doses required.”
Paul said the government was also watching the progress of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which they have said interim results from late-stage trials of their candidates showed they were more than 90% effective.
Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, which must be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius or below, Moderna can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, making it more suitable for poorer countries like India, where cold chains are limited. .
“Obviously this will be a very big obstacle to scale up the vaccine,” Paul said of Pfizer, adding that if India sees the need to do so, it will follow this option.
“If we are asked to formulate our strategy on this particular vaccine, we will proceed with it. Although, even if we get it, we will get it in just a few months. But the talks are ongoing.”
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