The Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has reiterated that India may not require Pfizer’s vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), and other candidate vaccines are so far being tested in the country showing promising results. in safety tests.
According to media reports, the health minister said it made no sense to consider the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as even the US regulatory authority had not yet granted approval for the vaccine. And even if approvals are granted, the manufacturer would first try to serve its local population before supplying the vaccine to other countries, he said.
India has at least five candidate vaccines against Covid-19 in human trials, of which three candidate vaccines are undergoing advanced phase 2/3 clinical trials to establish safety and efficacy.
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The Serum Institute of India is conducting the phase 3 trial with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate.
The Bharat Biotech-ICMR vaccine candidate, Covaxin, has also progressed and phase 3 of the trial has begun. The results of your phase 2 trials are expected at any time.
Cadila Health’s candidate vaccine, ZyCovD, has also completed the phase 2 trial and is awaiting the results, even as the follow-up period draws to a close.
Aside from these three phase 2/3 trials for the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, for which Dr. Reddy’s laboratories in India have partnered with Russian vaccine developers, it will begin anytime this week.
Hyderabad-based Biological E’s candidate vaccine also has initial phase 1/2 trials underway.
The government is in talks with the developers and manufacturers of all potential Covid-19 vaccine candidates for the acquisition of their product. According to the Health Minister, the government will begin the immunization process in a phased manner. In the first phase, it is considering vaccinating 250-300 million people by July next year, aiming to purchase around 500 million doses of vaccines, since most vaccines follow a two-dose regimen.
“Regarding the monitoring of advances in vaccine research, the government is continuously in talks with the parties involved. However, the actual procurement process will begin on the day any of these vaccines gain regulatory approvals. Until now, none of these vaccines have obtained the authorization for emergency use (USA), so there is still no doubt about the acquisition of the vaccine, ”the Union’s health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, told HT.
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