The potential COVID-19 vaccine has been developed by a Hyderabad-based Biotech firm, Bharat Biotech. India’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been named COVAXIN and has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research.
COVAXINE – India’s first COVID-19 vaccine candidate
As per the initial reports, COVAXIN is an inactivated vaccine. It has been created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus. It has demonstrated effective immunity and extensive safety responses during the preclinical studies. It has almost been half an year since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported and the world is ever-since trying to battle and survive the global health crisis. Pharmaceutical researchers and drugs-manufacturing firms are racing to come up with the first COVID-19 vaccine. As several institutions across states are pro-actively working on different drugs, India is expected to play a crucial role in developing the vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Notably, India is a leading manufacturer of vaccines and generic medicines in the world.
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The Indian government had earlier shared in May 2020 that as many as 30 groups in the country are working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. A senior scientific advisor has further said that initiates efforts that usually take 15 years are being condensed into the duration of one year with costs of around, $300 million. Furthermore, several Ayurveda extracts and Homeopathy medicines are also being tested and administered to boost immunity against the novel coronavirus in the country. However, experts caution that these immunity boosting drugs and extracts should not be regarded as a treatment or 100% protection against the novel virus. They warn that false or misleading claims can give people a false sense of security which may prompt people to lower their guard or avoid taking precautions. Researchers are making similar efforts around the world. World Health Organisation has remarked that AstraZeneca’s vaccine is probably the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate so far. While firms and organizations across the globe race towards the breakthrough in potential COVID vaccination, experts have cautioned that early vaccines may come with their own set of limitations too.
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