Big development! Good news - India's 1st Covid-19 vaccine, Bharat Biotec's COVAXIN, gets approval for human trials

It's a big development with respect to Covid-19 pandemic! In a good news for people and economies suffering from the deadly coronavirus spread, India's first Covid-19 vaccine - COVAXIN - developed by Bharat Biotech has got approval from Drug Controller General of India for Phase 1 and Phase II Human Trials.

Covid-19 vaccine COVAXIN: How it was developed?

Bharat Biotech has said that it has successfully developed COVAXIN, India’s 1st vaccine candidate for COVID-19, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV). The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated in NIV, Pune and transferred to Bharat Biotech. The indigenous, inactivated vaccine developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) High Containment facility located in Genome Valley, Hyderabad, India.

Permission Granted!

The Drug Controller General of India - CDSCO, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare granted permission to initiate Phase I & II Human clinical trials after the company submitted results generated from preclinical studies, demonstrating safety and immune response. Human clinical trials are scheduled to start across India in July 2020.

Announcing the vaccine development milestone, Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said, “We are proud to announce COVAXIN, India’s first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19. The collaboration with ICMR and NIV was instrumental in the development of this vaccine. The proactive support and guidance from CDSCO have enabled approvals to this project. Our R&D and Manufacturing teams worked tirelessly to deploy our proprietary technologies towards this platform.”

Meanwhile, with 18,522 people testing positive for COVID-19 in a single day, India's case count reached 5,66,840 on Tuesday while the death toll rose to 16,893 with 418 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The number of active cases stands at 2,15,125, while 3,34,821 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, according to the updated data at 8 am. The total number of confirmed cases includes foreigners. 418 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.