COVID-19 Vaccination Latest News in India: Covaxin paediatric trials likely to begin THIS MONTH - check all details here

COVID-19 Vaccination Latest News in India: Covaxin paediatric trials is likely to begin from June, said Dr Raches Ella, Business Development and International Advocacy Head of Bharat Biotech, said on Sunday.  

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According to an ANI report, while holding a virtual conversation with the members of the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Hyderabad on 'All About Vaccines', he said that the company is expecting approval for Covaxin from the World Health Organisation (WHO) by the end of the third or fourth quarter.

Notably, last week, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved Covaxin for the second and the third phase of clinical trials for children between the age of 2 and 18 years. Dr Ella exuded in the conference that the vaccines for kids may get the license in the third quarter of this year. He said, "We focused on developing the product last year. Now our focus is on ramping up our manufacturing capacity. Kid vaccine trails of Bharat Biotech may get the license in the third quarter of this year."

While talking about increasing the manufacturing capacity, Ella said that Bharat Biotech will be ramping up the manufacturing capacity of Covaxin to 700 million doses by the end of 2021. He further added, “We are happy to have the full support of the government because of which we are able to stand where we are today in this journey. The Government placed an advanced purchase order of Rs 1,500 crore. This will help us to increase our risk appetite. That is why we are expanding to Bangalore and Gujarat."

In India, the vaccination drive was started with Covaxin and Covishield on January 16, 2021. The second phase of COVID-19 vaccination to inoculate people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with comorbities was started from March 1, 2021. The third phase began from April 1, 2021, where all above 45 years were included. In the next phase, that started from May 1, 2021, all adults above 18 years of age were included.