Bharat Biotech has received regulatory approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to start human clinical trials for Covaxin, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that it has developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). This is the first instance of a vaccine being indigenously developed and being approved for human trials for coronavirus.
The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated at NIV, Pune and transferred to Bharat Biotech. The indigenous, inactivated vaccine has been developed and manufactured by Bharat Biotech for clinical trials and has shown good response in pre-clinical animal studies.
Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director of Bharat Biotech tells CNBC-TV18 that human trials for the vaccine will begin in the first week July itself and phase 1 trials will be undertaken by premier medical institutions like AIIMS, Delhi and Nizam’s institute of Medical Sciences, among others.
Watch the video to know more.