THE INDIAN VACCINE
MRNA
Covaxin has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian council of medical research (ICMR)
It is based on a virus strain isolated by National Institute of Virology Pune. Strain transferred to Bharat Biotech on May 9 to develop vaccine candidate
The inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-safety Level 3) High Containment facility in Genome Valley, Hyderabad
Vaccine
CHADOX1-S
Adv-5 vector
Developer
Oxford University, Astrazeneca Cansino/beijing Institute of Biotech Moderna/niaid
UK
US
ICMR in its letter to trial centres laid down a deadline of August 15 for completion of clinical trials. This has led experts to ask
China
How will processes that require weeks of observation for an immune response be collapsed into days? How will approvals from institutional ethics committees – which can take weeks
TOP CONTENDERS
Country
Trial phase
Phase 2b/3
Phase 2
Phase 2
-- from each of the trial centres be obtained in this short window? How will generation, entry and analysis of data be done in this time period since trials have not even begun yet
Current stage end
July 2021
January 2021
August 2021
India’s vaccine differs from the top three in the way that it’s an inactivated virus. The others send in genetic code or component of the virus to trigger an immune response. This has bearing for how quickly it can be produced, thus determining speed of immunisations. Inactivated virus vaccines require large quantities of infectious viruses, while the others can be bio-engineered more easily