An Indian scientist said that the Drug Controller General of India's nod to conduct human trials for Indian Covid-19 vaccine candidates Covaxin and ZyCov-D mark the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Business Standard, scientist T V Venkateswaran said in his article that the announcement of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Zydus Cadila's ZyCov-D is "the silver line in the dark clouds." The article has been published on the websites of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and the Vigyan Prasar.
With two indian vaccine in clinical trial, silver lining in the dark clouds of #COVID19 but time not ripe to remove the facemasks @IndSciComm @SciComm_India @VigyanPrasar @spf_in @indhttps://t.co/3py72hzuGP — TV Venkateswaran (@TVVen) July 4, 2020
The Vigyan Prasar article said it could take anywhere between 15 to 18 months before licenses are issued for the vaccine while the PIB story did not set a date.
Also, the article stated that the approval from the Drug Controller General of India for the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to undergo vaccines for human trials marks the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
On Monday, July 6, Bharat Biotech, which is based in Genome Valley plant in Hyderabad, has received approval from Drug Controller General of India for the phase-1 and phase-2 human clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine. This followed the submission of the animal trial results that show the vaccine to be safe and trigger an immune response.
Bharat Biotech already has more than 140 global patents and 16 vaccines under its name, which include the H1N1 vaccine used in the swine flu outbreak.
Vaccines being developed worldwide will be made in India
India has emerged to be a significant vaccine manufacturing center in the past years with pharmaceutical companies producing 60% of UNICEF's vaccine supplies.
"The vaccine for the novel coronavirus may be developed anywhere in the world, but without Indian manufacturers involved the production of required quantities is not going to be feasible," Venkateswaran wrote.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had written to select medical institutions and hospitals to fast-track clinical trial approvals for the vaccine candidate Covaxin being developed in collaboration with Bharat Biotech. It hopes to unveil a local coronavirus vaccine on August 15.
However, experts cautioned against rushing the process for developing a vaccine as the Indian health authorities and companies seem to be following only the fast-tracking of vaccine development for diseases of pandemic potential.
Currently, more than 140 vaccines are undergoing various stages of development across the globe. These include the two Indian vaccines, Covaxin and ZyCov-D, which are among the 11 vaccine candidates that are now going through human trials.
Aside from Covaxin and ZyCov-D, the AZD1222 is among the more popular candidates. While it was developed by the Jenner Institute of the University of Oxford, British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca got the license to manufacture and distribute it worldwide.
Also, the mRNA-1273 vaccine developed by the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Washington, which will be produced in partnership with American pharmaceutical company Moderna is nearing completion with its trials.
While the British and American companies got the licenses, they will both have the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Indian manufacturers.
