New Delhi: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that India would get a vaccine against the novel coronavirus by the end of 2020. However, it will only happen if everything goes according to schedule Harsh Vardhan added.
Three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including two indigenous ones, are in different phases of development in India. The phase-one human clinical trials of the two indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been complete. One has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR. The other vaccine candidate is being handled by Zydus Cadila. It has also completed its phase one trials and have moved to the second phase.
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On the other hand the Serum Institute of India has been permitted to conduct its phase two and three human clinical trials in India. Serum Institute has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. This vaccine candidate is being developed by the University of Oxford.
“I hope that if everything goes well, India will get a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year,” Vardhan said in a Hindi tweet, Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, the apex health research body, ICMR, is in the process of developing an online vaccine portal. This portal will provide information related to COVID-19 vaccine development in India and abroad. Updates will be provided regularly in regional languages in addition to English.
The aim of creating the website is to provide all information and updates relating to the COVID-19 vaccine development on one platform. Currently all the information in this regard is scattered as of now, Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, said Sunday.
The idea behind making the updates available in regional languages is very simple. It is being done so that every citizen is able to access the information. The portal is likely to be functional by next week, Panda informed.