Prepared to produce vaccines, says Modi
PREP Says road map for distribution of vaccine to every Indian ready
AT LEAST FOUR OTHER VACCINES HAVE REACHED ADVANCED PRE-CLINICAL STAGES AND ARE SOON SCHEDULED TO ENTER HUMAN TRIALS STAGE
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said three Covid-19 vaccine candidates were being tested in India and the country is awaiting the go-ahead from scientists to begin their mass production. He added that a road map for the distribution of the vaccine to every single Indian in the least possible time was also ready.
“...our scientists are dutifully engaged in the laboratories. They are putting in great efforts. At present, testing for three vaccines is in different stages in the country. Once we get a green signal from our scientists, we will launch a massive production of the vaccine. We have made all the preparations,” Modi said in his Independence Day speech.
Indian biotech companies have developed two of the three vaccine candidates that have entered the human trial stage in India.
The vaccine candidate Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology (Pune) uses an inactivated strain of the virus to trigger an immune response. The vaccine has entered phase II trial to examine its immunogenicity, or the ability to produce an immune response.
Zydus Cadila has developed the second Dna-based vaccine candidate called Zydcov D, which, too, is in phase II trial.
The third vaccine is by Oxford University in collaboration with the Swedish-british biotech company Astrazeneca. Serum Institute of India, which will produce 1 billion doses of the vaccine if it is successful, will conduct its larger phase III trial.
At least four other vaccine candidates have reached advanced pre-clinical stages and are soon scheduled to enter the human trials stage. The Department of Biotechnology, which is the nodal agency for vaccine development in India, is supporting the development of the four vaccines.
A national expert group on vaccine administration has been formed to decide protocols for the procurement and administration of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Government think-tank NITI Ayog member Dr VK Paul heads the group.
Former Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao said that a Covid-19 vaccine is the need of the hour to help in preventing infections. “But the availability of a safe and effective vaccine will depend on the data generated from the phase III trials. The pace at which we are going, a vaccine should be available by March or April next year. When will it reach you or me is another question.”
Rao said health care workers and high-risk populations such as the elderly will get the vaccine first. “The government should study the deaths from the infection to see who is dying to inform this strategy.”
Dr T Jacob John, a former virology professor at Vellore’s Christian Medical College, said this is the right time to answer questions like who gets the vaccine. “Whether it will be licensed for sale or controlled by the government, how will the vaccines be delivered to the people, and who pays for it. The government needs to create a platform for vaccine delivery. The universal immunisation programme is for the children and there is not an adult vaccine delivery mechanism in the country just like the flu vaccine.”