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NEW DELHI: The government is considering the emergency authorization of Covid-19 vaccine so that it can be made available as soon as possible to those in high-risk groups, including the elderly and health workers, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said. “This will be done after a consensus is reached,” Vardhan said during a social media interaction called ‘Sunday Samvaad’.
Officials said that while the final phase of a vaccine trial takes six to nine months, it can be considered an emergency authorization once a certain level of efficacy is established along with its safety.
The long-awaited vaccine, there are several in the works, is expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2021, Vardhan said, although he maintained that “a date for the launch of the vaccine has not yet been set.”
To allay concerns about the safety of a vaccine, Vardhan said he would be happy to take the first dose if some people had a confidence deficit. He also added that it would first be made available to those who need it most, regardless of their ability to pay.
Vardhan’s comments came a day after the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced the resumption of its Covid vaccine trial after it got the go-ahead from British regulators. Its partner in India, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, also halted trials after the Comptroller General of Drugs of India issued a notice of demonstrative cause. The company is awaiting the required approvals from DCGI to resume testing.
India has three vaccines in advanced stages of testing. The candidate vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca and proposed in India by the Serum Institute is ahead and ready to enter phase 3. The other two candidates developed locally by Bharat Biotech and Cadila are in phase 2 trials. Furthermore, the government is also talking to Russia to go after Sputnik V.
Vardhan said the government was taking every precaution when testing the vaccine and officials were working out a detailed strategy on how to immunize the majority of the population.
“Issues like vaccine safety, cost, fairness, cold chain requirements and production timelines are being hotly debated,” he said. He added that a safe and effective vaccine would help establish immunity against Covid at a much faster rate compared to natural infection.
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