India becomes one of frontrunners in global effort to develop COVID vaccine

India has become one of the frontrunners in the global effort to develop a vaccine for the containment of COVID-19. Government agencies have stepped up collaboration with private partners to fastrack the approval process needed for development of a potential Covid vaccine.

AIR correspondent reports, human clinical trials of the indigenous COVID vaccines have been started at the various levels in the country to identify the efficacy of these potential vaccines. Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadilla have initiated human clinical trials of their vaccines after getting the approval from the government.

Government has assured to provide all the necessary support for the development of vaccine saying that all the regulatory process will be ensured. ICMR and Bharat Biotech have joined hands for the development of potential COVID-19 vaccine called ‘Covaxin’ whereas the Department of Biotechnology has partially funded the development of Zydus’s vaccine ZyCov-D. India is considered a pharmacy of the world and 60 per cent of the vaccine at world level is supplied by India.

A top Indian pharma company Serum Institute of India has bagged a contract with British drugmaker AstraZeneca to supply one billion doses of Oxford University’s potential COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine is currently at the third level of human clinical trial stage.