Covid-19 vaccine may be available in India by early next year, says Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that a vaccine against Covid-19 might be available in India by the first part of next year.

“A vaccine should be available in India by the first half of 2021,” Vardhan said in the Rajya Sabha responding to a debate on Covid-19.

The minister, however, did not share any further details on what vaccine he had on his mind.

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While two Indian vaccines have just completed the phase-1 of the clinical trial and nowhere close to a commercial launch, Pune-based Serum Institute of India received the Drugs Controller General of India’s permission to restart a bridging study of a vaccine developed by the researchers at the Oxford University.

The study will be conducted on nearly 1,500 individuals at 14 sites in collaboration with an ICMR institute. The company hopes that the trials may be over by the end of 2020.

The Indian trial was briefly paused after one recipient of the vaccine reported complications in a parallel trial of the same vaccine in the UK. The Oxford vaccine is one of the few that are ahead in the global race to get a shot against the pandemic virus.

Russian authorities too signed an agreement with Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratory – a prominent pharmaceutical firm. The Indian company will carry out the large scale clinical trial and sell the doses in India if the trial results are successful.

Vardhan’s assertion comes days after the minister in a social media interaction observed that the ministry might consider “emergency authorisation” once a vaccine is proven efficacious and ready for a commercial roll out.

The minister said India’s Covid-19 fatality rate is 1.64% which the government intended to bring down to 1%.

On Thursday, India’s official toll was 83,198, out of which 1,132 were added in the last 24 hours. The number of active people crossed a million with 97,894 new cases added in the same period.