COVID-19 vaccine likely to be launched in India by February

Our Correspondent

A vaccine for COVID-19 is likely to be launched in February 2021, much earlier than expected, a news agency quoted a senior government official as saying.

The last-stage trials are slated to begin this month for a Indian-government back vaccine trials and studies have so far showed it is safe and effective.
Bharat Biotech, a private company that is developing COVAXIN with the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), had earlier hoped to launch it only in the second quarter of next year.

“The vaccine has shown good efficacy,” senior ICMR scientist Rajni Kant, who is also a member of its COVID-19 task-force, said in New Delhi. “It is expected that by the beginning of next year, February or March, something would be available.”

A launch in February would make COVAXIN the first India-made vaccine to be rolled out.

Cases of coronavirus infections in the country rose by 50,201 cases on November 5 to 8.36 million, second only to the United States. Deaths rose by 704, with the total now at 124,315. The daily rise in infections and deaths has slowed since a peak in mid-September.

Federal Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in September the government was considering granting an emergency authorisation for a COVID-19 vaccine, particularly for the elderly and people in high-risk workplaces.

Several leading vaccine candidates are already in final-stage testing. An experimental vaccine developed by Britain’s AstraZeneca is among the most advanced ones, and Britain expects to roll it out in late December or early 2021.

AstraZeneca has signed several supply and manufacturing deals with companies and governments around the world, including with the Serum Institute of India.