Guwahati: Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad-based company, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), has developed COVAXIN, India's first vaccine candidate for the Covid-19.
According to reports, the indigenous, inactivated vaccine was developed in Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) High Containment facility located in Genome Valley, Hyderabad, India.
After the company submitted results generated from pre-clinical studies, the Drug Controller General of India- Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare granted permission to initiate Phase I & II Human clinical trials. The trials are scheduled to begin in July, 2020.
Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech said that the collaboration with ICMR and NIV was instrumental in the development of this vaccine. He further added this the company's R&D and Manufacturing teams worked tirelessly to deploy their proprietary technologies towards this platform.
According to reports, the company completed the comprehensive pre-clinical studies and the results from these studies have been "promising" and show "extensive safety" and "effective immune responses."
Suchitra Ella, the Joint Managing Director opined that company's expertise in forecasting epidemics enabled it tomanufacture a vaccine for the H1N1 pandemic.
In the past, the company has developed vaccines for diseases such as Polio, Rabies, Rotavirus, Japanese Encephalitis, Chikungunya and Zika.