As the COVID-19 cases are increasing by 50,000 a week, common Indians’ have a very slim chance of getting vaccine until 2022. There are 182 coronavirus vaccine candidates globally in pre-clinical and clinical trial stages. However, in India, only two vaccines are in Phase-II trials and one (the Oxford University one) in Phase-III.
While drug markers are pretty ambitious with their calculations, the experts say the general public needs to wait till March-April 2021 for a vaccine. Firms like Moderna Inc and Pfizer may opt for an emergency-use authorization route for launching their short by year-end.
Dr Randeep Guleria, AIIMS Directors, member of the national task force on the coronavirus management in the country, said that the general public will have to wait till 2022 for a shot of the coronavirus vaccine. He added it will take more than a year for a vaccine to be readily available in the Indian markets.
Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research is developing COVAXIN. They wanted to launch the vaccine in the second quarter of next year. Senior ICMR scientist Rajni Kant, also a member of the COVID-19 task force, in the research body’s New Delhi headquarters said, “The vaccine has shown good efficacy. It is expected that by the beginning of next year, February or March, something would be available.”
In February, a launch of the Indian vaccine, COVAXIN will be rolled out.
Anganwadi centres, schools, panchayat buildings, and other such setups will be used extensively in addition to healthcare facilities as vaccination sites in the anti-coronavirus drive. The drive will be monitored by the Union health ministry’s digital platform and would involve sending SMSes and generating a QR code to track the beneficiaries.
BioNTech’s Chinese counterpart Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group has decided to stop the further trials of the German firm’s COVID-19 vaccine. The German vaccine candidate has completed the initial stages of trials in China. Fosun will concentrate on getting China’s approval for BioNTech’s vaccine which is in the final – stage of human trials in the United States.
Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics Inc has delivered the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico for late stage-trials on 10,000 to 15,000 volunteers.
On Wednesday, the chief trial investigator for the Oxford coronavirus vaccine said the vaccine could present late-stage results before the year-end. However, they are indecisive about rolling out the vaccine before Christmas.
The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group said, “Our bit- we are getting closer to but, we are not there yet.” he further added.
