NEW DELHI: Bharat Biotech of India says its Covid-19 vaccine has shown 81% effectiveness in protecting people in a large clinical trial, a report that could boost inoculation work of India and vaccine diplomacy efforts.
Bharat Biotech is one of the world’s largest producers of vaccines, but is little known outside the industry. Since the first half of 2020 it has been developing a Covid-19 vaccine, which New Delhi approved for emergency use this year. India has already administered the vaccine to more than a million people.
However, many Indians have said they were reluctant to fire Bharat Biotech as they wanted to wait for the results of the final phase trials. The momentum of vaccination in India has gone much slower than expected and some health workers said one of the reasons was that people did not feel safe from the Bharat Biotech vaccine.
Last month there was scheduling for Covid-19 shots in New Delhi.
Photo:
T. Narayan / Bloomberg News
The company said it wanted to clear up any doubts with its announcement on Wednesday. Provisional results from its phase 3 trial, which gave 25,800 people between the ages of 18 and 98 their vaccine or placebo, suggest that it is effective against Covid-19. The company added that it has early indications that it is also effective against the most contagious variant of coronavirus in the UK.
“Today is an important day for us, the company and also for the science of the country and India,” said Krishna Ella, President and CEO of Bharat Biotech.
More than 11 million people have been confirmed infected in India, a figure surpassed only by the United States, while the number of Indian deaths per capita is dead, the country’s economy has been one of the most affected.
India is in the midst of what may be the most ambitious vaccination engine in the world. It tries to get shots at 300 million of its more than 1.3 billion citizens in August. To date it has administered around 15 million doses, most of them the vaccine developed in the UK by Oxford University and AstraZeneca PLC and mass produced in India by the Serum Institute of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed his confidence in the local vaccine this week when he made his first shot of the Bharat Biotech version.
“It is remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in such a short time to strengthen the global fight against COVID-19,” he tweeted with a photo of who was shot.
As highly transmissible coronavirus variants spread around the world, scientists are rushing to understand why these new versions of the virus are spreading faster and what it can mean for vaccination efforts. New research says the key may be the ear protein, which gives the coronavirus its unmistakable shape. Illustration: Nick Collingwood / WSJ
India has become a surprise leader in vaccine diplomacy, supporting most developing countries, as well as some rich countries, as much of the supplies to the United States and Europe are have been assigned and manufacturers around the world have had unexpected problems. production bottle necks.
India has been able to send tens of millions of doses abroad due to the huge production capacity of the Serum Institute of India, which has been producing enough AstraZeneca vaccines to supply the local inoculation unit with more that enough for export. It has exported more than 45 million doses to about 45 countries, including Canada, Kenya and Cambodia. About 7 million of these doses were given by the Indian government.
With the results of Phase 3, Bharat Biotech also plans to become a major exporter. He said on Wednesday that more than 40 countries were already interested in using their vaccine.
The company is not new to the vaccine race. Over the years, it has produced billions of doses of other vaccines. He said his Covid-19 vaccine would be especially competitive with many on the market, as it only needs to be stored in normal refrigerators and doses can be used up to 28 days after a vial is opened. Other vaccines should often be used within a few hours of opening, i.e. any dose that is discontinued should be discarded within one day.
The Bharat Biotech vaccine was developed in conjunction with the Indian Council for Medical Research, a government organization, which said the success of the trials in the final phase was a matter of national pride.
“The bank’s journey to the head of the fully indigenous Covid-19 vaccine in less than eight months shows India’s immense strength to self-sufficient to fight the odds and stand in the global public health community,” said Balram Bhargava, CEO of ICMR. “It is also a testament to the emergence of India as a global vaccine superpower.”
—Krishna Pokharel contributed to this article.
Write to Eric Bellman to [email protected]
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