A top official of Bharat Biotech confirmed that a potential vaccine, ‘Covaxin’, will be 60% effective against Coronavirus infection. The company is aiming to launch the vaccine in the second quarter of 2021.
Sai D Prasad, President, Quality Operations at Bharat Biotech, said the company is aiming for at least 60 percent effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine candidate, however, it could also be more.
Covaxin is being developed in India by Bharat Biotech and ICMR. Several countries including the UK, the USA, and Russia is racing to provide the world a solution for COVID-19 infection.
Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad based company is also one of them and has commenced Phase 3 trials of the vaccine earlier this month. The Phase 3 trials involved 26,000 volunteers across 25 centers in India. It is the largest clinical trial conducted for a coronavirus vaccine candidate in India.
Trial volunteers will receive two intramuscular injections in the difference of 28 days. Participants will be randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either two 6 micrograms (mcg) injections of Covaxin or two shots of a placebo.
The trial is double-blinded, meaning that the investigators, the participants, and the company will not be aware of who is assigned to which group. The vaccine earlier was evaluated in 1,000 subjects during Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.
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