PM Modi to visit Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad to review progress on Covaxin development

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad on Saturday, to review the progress on the country's indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine.

The Hyderabad based biotech firm has in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) developed India’s first vaccine candidate for Covid-19, named Covaxin.

The Covaxin trials on humans had commenced in July.

At present, the vaccine is undergoing Phase-3 tests at 25 medical centres across the country. It will be administered on 26,000 volunteers in total, in the efficacy trial, Bharat Biotech sources said.

The inactivated vaccine is manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Biosafety Level 3) high containment facility located in the Genome Valley, on the outskirts of the city.

“The PM Hyderabad visit is only for an hour and to one place only,” VC Sajjanar, commissioner, Cyberabad police told DH.

The PM's visit coincides with the BJP's aggressive campaigning in the city for the 1 December Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, involving party bigwigs like president JP Nadda, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and home minister Amit Shah.

Though some reports claimed that Modi might also participate in the election campaign, BJP leaders denied them as rumours.