When will India get its first COVID-19 vaccine | Fusion - WeRIndia

Now, COVID-19 vaccine is talk of the town everywhere globally. In India also, a huge debate is going on when will the first vaccine of the country come out and who will get it.

In this context, Union Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be available by the end of this year as clinical trials are in the third phase.

There are three potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Covaxin is the first vaccine for COVID-19. Bharat BioTech developed it in association with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).

ZyCov-D by Zydus Cadilla is another homegrown COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Both, Bharat BioTech and Zydus Cadilla finished phase II clinical trials successfully.

Serum Institute of India has another COVID-19 vaccine candidate. It is ready to conduct an advanced clinical trial for COVID-19 made by the University of Oxford. Nearly 1,600 people from 17 places across the country have enrolled for the clinical trial.

Each vaccine is different. Covaxin is an inactivated virus vaccine while the vaccine developed by Zydus Cadila is a DNA vaccine. The third one is the Recombinant Oxford University vaccine.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the Serum Institute of India to conduct phase II and phase III clinical study in India. ICMR will support the trials.

As per the MoU of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with Bharat Biotech, vaccines should be provided to the Government of India at an affordable and subsidized rate.

A similar agreement is made with the Serum Institute of India. Front-line warriors and vulnerable groups like people above the age of 65 years and those who have comorbidities will get the vaccine first.

The government is all set to prepare the vaccine for the production on a mass scale, but waiting for the clearance from scientists.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vaccine-chemist-outbreak-4946480/