Covid vaccine for kids likely by Sept

NEW DELHI: A coronavirus inoculation for children is likely to be approved by September, according to two officials involved in the development of the vaccines, including Bharat Biotech’s managing director Krishna Ella, who said the trial phase of the clinical studies in volunteers in the 2-18 age group has been completed.

There are two vaccine candidates that have been tested among children in India: Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCov-D.

The Covaxin trial includes 525 volunteers while ZyCov-D’s trials – as part of the phase II/ III clinical studies – includes 1,000 volunteers in the 12-18 age group.

“Our clinical trial final phase is over. We are hoping that by either by month end or by next month we should get the license for vaccine in children. This is the only vaccine in the world that can be given to children between 2 and 18 years,” Ella said in an interview to DD News on Wednesday.

A senior official from Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, which collaborated with Bharat Biotech for Covaxin, said she expected the results from the studies to be out soon and an approval to follow shortly after.

“Hopefully, the results (of the trials) are going to be available very soon. These will be presented to the regulators. So, by September or just after it, we may have Covid-19 vaccines for children,” said Priya Abraham, director of NIV, Pune, in an interview to India Science, a web channel of the government’s Department of Science and Technology.