NEW DELHI (AP) – India authorized two COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday, paving the way for a huge inoculation program to curb the coronavirus pandemic in the world’s second most populous country.
India’s drug regulator gave an emergency clearance for vaccines developed by Oxford University and UK-based drug manufacturer AstraZeneca and another developed by Indian company Bharat Biotech.
General Venugopal Dr. G Somani, drug controller, said the two vaccines will be given in two doses.
Somani said the decision to approve the vaccines was made after a “careful examination” by the Central Standard Drug Control Organization, India’s pharmaceutical regulator.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the approval of the vaccine as a “decisive turning point to strengthen a lively struggle”.
“Congratulations India,” Modi tweeted.
The country’s initial vaccination plan aims to vaccinate 300 million people (health workers, front-line staff, including police and those who are considered vulnerable due to their age or other illnesses) by August 2021. For an effective distribution, more than 20,000 health workers have been trained. to administer the vaccine, the Ministry of Health said.
But this will be a challenge for India. Despite having one of the largest vaccination programs, it is not adult-oriented and vaccination coverage remains erratic. Neither vaccine requires the ultra-cold storage facilities that some others do. Instead, they can be stored in refrigerators, making them more feasible for the country.
Although the world’s largest vaccine maker does not have a written agreement with the Indian government, its chief executive, Adar Poonawalla, said Monday in a virtual briefing that India would have “priority” and would receive most of its stock of about 50 million doses.
AstraZeneca has hired the Serum Institute of India to make one billion doses for developing countries, including India. On Wednesday, Britain became the first to approve the shooting.
Partial results from studies on the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot in nearly 24,000 people in Britain, Brazil and South Africa suggest that the vaccine is safe and around 70% effective. This is not as good as some other vaccine candidates, and there are also concerns about how the vaccine will protect the elderly.
The researchers had also stated that the vaccine protects against the virus in 62% of people who received two doses and 90% in those who were given half a dose due to a manufacturing error. But the latter group included only 2,741 people, too small to be conclusive.
The other vaccine known as COVAXIN is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with government agencies and is based on an inactivated form of the coronavirus. The company has only completed two of the three test phases. The third, which tests effectiveness, began in mid-November.
Early clinical studies showed that the vaccine has no serious side effects and produces antibodies against COVID-19. With the second vaccine to be given 28 days after the first and an immune response occurred two weeks later, it is unclear whether the company has provided data on the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Somani said “the vaccine has been found to be safe.”
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that permission was granted for the taking of Bharat Biotech for restricted use in “public interest as a precaution in the clinical trial mode, especially in the context of strain infection. mutants “.
Dr. Gagandeep Kang of Vellore Christian Medical College said the idea that the vaccine could help against a mutant variant of the virus was “hypothetical.”
India, with nearly 1.4 billion people, is the second most affected by coronavirus after the United States, with more than 10.3 million confirmed cases and 149,435 deaths, although its infection rate has dropped significantly of a mid-September peak.
Regulators in India are still considering approving other vaccines, including one from Pfizer.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.