The THD NewsDesk, Hyderabad: Bharat Biotech International Limited in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been working on Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Covaxin for a while now. On September 12, they have made a statement about having completed the 1st phase of Animal Trials successfully.
Covaxin, developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech, is being tested at 12 institutes across India.
Bharat Biotech tweeted on Friday saying,
“Bharat Biotech proudly announces the animal study results of COVAXIN – These results demonstrate the protective efficacy in a live viral challenge model.”
It also added that the proficient efficacy of the vaccine had been observed by testing it on macaques. Twenty macaques were divided into four groups of five animals each.
It also added,
“One group was administered a placebo while three groups were immunised with three different vaccine candidates at 0 and 14 days. All the macaques were challenged with SARS-CoV-2 14 days after the second dose. The protective response was observed with increasing SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and neutralising antibody titres from third-week post-immunisation.”
“No evidence of pneumonia was observed by histopathological examination in vaccinated groups, unlike the placebo group which showed features of interstitial pneumonia and localisation of viral antigen in the alveolar epithelium and macrophages by immunohistochemistry,” It added.
To conclude it says,
“To summarise, the vaccine candidate was found to generate robust immune responses. Thus, preventing infection and disease in the primates upon high amounts of exposure to live SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
In June, Bharat Biotech announced the development of the vaccine, Covaxin in collaboration with ICMR and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). It has received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation to conduct the Phase-II trials earlier this month.
The potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s high containment facility located in Genome Valley, Hyderabad. The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated in NIV, Pune and transferred to Bharat Biotech.
Covaxin is one of the frontrunners in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine in India. It is still an “inactivated” vaccine — it works by injecting doses of the virus that have been killed aiming to encourage and push the body to build antibodies against it without the virus causing any harm to it.
The aim of the different phases of vaccines are as follows:
- Phase 1: It focuses on determining safety and dosage in a small group of healthy participants.
- Phase 2: It looks at the vaccine’s effectiveness.
- Phase 3: It looks into these aspects in a much larger population that would represent a wider demographic
Hence, Covaxin is posing as the hope and the light that everyone needs to see at the end of the dark tunnel. Since the Pandemic has started the whole world is in eager wait for the potential vaccine which can put an end to this serious disease posing a potential threat to the whole of humankind.