COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Animal Trials of Covaxin Successful, Announces Bharat Biotech; Says Results Demonstrate Protective Efficacy
Bharat Biotech proudly announces the animal study results of COVAXIN - These results demonstrate the protective efficacy in a live viral challenge model, tweeted the Hyderabad-based firm.
New Delhi: Bharat Biotech, the Indian firm working towards developing a COVID-19 vaccine along with ICMR, has announced that the animal trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate Covaxin were successful. It asserted that the results exhibited the protective efficacy of the vaccine in a live viral challenge model, reported a leading portal.
"Bharat Biotech proudly announces the animal study results of COVAXIN - These results demonstrate the protective efficacy in a live viral challenge model," tweeted the Hyderabad-based firm. It said the data from the study on primates substantiate the immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate.
Bharat Biotech is currently conducting a phase I/II clinical trial of Covaxin on 1,125 patients at 12 hospitals across the country, including All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and Patna, King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad and PGIMS in Rohtak.
The development comes days after Serum Institute of India (SII) paused clinical trials of AstraZeneca Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country until further orders.
Notably, the UK-Swedish company froze the trials after discovering that one participant was sick with transverse myelitis. This condition results in the inflammation of parts of the spinal cord and may be caused by infections, among other things. As per the Financial Times newspaper AstraZeneca might resume clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in upcoming days.
Meanwhile, India is currently in the second place in terms of cases at 4,562,414, while the country's death toll stood at 76,271. The US accounted for the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 6,395,904 and 191,753 respectively, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).
Published:Sat, September 12, 2020 8:25am | Updated:Sat, September 12, 2020 10:06am