The new mid-stage trial will determine whether the vaccine is effective on people between the ages of 6 and 17, according to a statement from the university.

Around 300 volunteers will be enrolled and first inoculations are expected this month, Oxford said.

The two-dose Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been hailed as a ‘vaccine for the world’ because it is cheaper and easier to distribute than some rivals.

AstraZeneca has a target to produce 3 billion doses this year and aims to produce over 200 million doses per month by April.

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As the vaccines reached Brazil early on Saturday, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said, “Made in India vaccines arrive in Brazil.”

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro thanked PM Narendra Modi for the vaccines and said, “Namaskar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Brazil feels honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle by joining efforts. Thank you for assisting us with the vaccine exports from India to Brazil. Dhanyavaad.”

To this, PM Modi replied, “The honour is ours, President Jair M. Bolsonaro to be a trusted partner of Brazil in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic together. We will continue to strengthen our cooperation on healthcare.”

Bolsonaro referred to the Covid-19 vaccine from India as ‘sanjeevni booti’ from Ramayana.

The Indian ambassador to Brazil said, “Today is a historic day in India-Brazil relations. Brazil is the first country to get such a consignment. PM Modi said we’ll make vaccine available to all countries and we’ll continue to work towards that and I wish you good luck in your efforts.”

Two flights, each carrying 2 million doses of Covishield vaccine, departed from the Mumbai airport for Brazil and Morocco in the early hours of Friday.

India is one of the world’s biggest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring coronavirus vaccines.

Since Wednesday, India has begun sending Covid-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles.

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Earlier ICMR and SII have further collaborated for the clinical development of development of COVOVAX, developed by American company Novavax and upscaled by SII.

SII said it has enrolled 1,600 participants in India for late-stage trials of AstraZeneca’s candidate, and also plans to seek regulatory approval to run late-stage trials for Novavax vaccine.

Covishield is the AstraZeneca-Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine candidate and is the most advanced in human testing in India. SII and ICMR is planning to pursue early availability of the shot in India.

The ICMR had funded the clinical trial site fees for Covishield. SII and ICMR are currently conducting mid-stage clinical trials of the shot at 15 centres across India.

The two frontrunner coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and Russia have shown positive results and are said to be effective by over 90% against COVID-19. Now Moderna is also getting closer to releasing the data on its late-stage trials of the corona vaccine candidate.

Meanwhile, in India, experts have said that Pfizer news may not be of much use in India as the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine needs storage at extreme cold temperature (-70 degree Celsius) and arranging such cold chains would be a huge logistical issue.

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The phase-III human clinical trial began at the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune on September 17. King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Mumbai on September 23 began the phase II and III trials of the coronavirus vaccine.

Some participants in the trials for the coronavirus vaccine have also received their second doses and have not reported any adverse side-effects.

However, some did develop a fever after the dose of the coronavirus vaccine, but top scientists said that those are mild reactions and should not be worried about.

Some investigators also said that developing a fever is considered a common and mild side-effect of vaccines.

In September, Aztra Zeneca Plc said it has paused a late-stage trial of one of the leading coronavirus vaccine candidates after an unexplained illness in a study participant. After reviews the safety of the vaccine and its procedures, the human trials were resumed.

The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has partnered with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca for manufacturing the coronavirus vaccine candidate, being developed by the University of Oxford, UK.

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Now the country’s total coronavirus case stands at 51,18,253.

COVID-19 Testing Update. For more details visit: https://t.co/dI1pqwfbRz @MoHFW_INDIA @DeptHealthRes #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/joQaGm2E7R

— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) September 17, 2020

According to Union health ministry update on Thursday morning, the number of active cases crossed the million mark and currently stand at 10,09,976 whereas 40,25,079 patients have been discharged from hospitals.

The recovery rate has further improved to 78.53 per cent, the health ministry said.
It further said that nearly 59 per cent of the new recoveries came from five states – 23.41 per cent from Maharashtra (19,423 recoveries); and a cumulative 35.5 per cent from Andhra Pradesh (9,628 recoveries), Karnataka (7,406), Uttar Pradesh (6,680) and Tamil Nadu (5,735).

Twenty-seven states and union territories are reporting recovery rates of more than 70 per cent, the ministry highlighted.

Meanwhile, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday received the approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to resume clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by United Kingdom’s Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

The trials in India were paused last week after a trial subject in the United Kingdom developed an unexplained severe adverse reaction.

On September 16, the Supreme Court said that the central government has approved the use of Remdesivir and Fabiparivir as medicines to treat the coronavirus disease.

The top court was hearing a plea by the CBI against ten Indian pharmaceutical firms for manufacturing and selling these two medicines to treat the coronavirus disease.

Globally, nearly 30 million people have been infected with as many as 939,427 fatalities. The United States continued to the worst affected followed by India and Brazil. India, however, remained on top of the recoveries chart.

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That the first stage trials of vaccines being developed in the United States and the United Kingdom have been successful is a good indication that a vaccine for the infection would soon be available. 

There are reports that the first stage trails of the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca PLC in association with Oxford University have been successful. Last week, US-based biotech company Moderna Inc had released the results of the first level experiments. Experiments are under way in many countries, including India. 

The results of the experiments of the vaccine developed by Oxford University published in The Lancet medical journal reveal that the vaccine doesn’t have any dangerous side effects. It has been found that antibodies and T-cells have developed in the people who have undergone treatment with the vaccine. It shows that the vaccine has been successful. Last stage experiments are under way in Brazil and South Africa and second stage experiments will start in the US soon.

In the US, vaccine production has started along with the testing of the vaccine. This is to make the vaccine available to the public at the earliest if the experiments are successful. Steps for production have been adopted not even considering the initial monetary losses.

Research and experiments are under way in India too to develop a vaccine. The Serum Institute of India has sought permission for the procedures. The institute has said that production of the vaccine will start without much delay. The institute has entered into contract with the many companies that are conducting experiments in the world including the British Company AstraZeneca. Serum institute has entered into a deal for production of the vaccine in India if the experiments being conducted by these companies are successful. This would help avoid any delay. 

The authorities have later withdrawn the statement that the vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech in association with National Institute of Virology would be ready by August 15. Experts had pointed out that taking into account the time needed for experiments this would be practically impossible to meet. 

Many states in India are facing the threat of community spread even if they haven’t officially declared it. It was quite shocking to learn that 23.48% of the population in Delhi has been affected by the infection. The news of the success of the first level of experiments comes as a relief at this stage.

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