Covaxin Will Be At Least 60% Effective

Covaxin, a potential vaccine being prepared by Bharat Biotech against the Coronavirus, is expected to be at least 60 per cent effective and the Hyderabad-based biotechnology company is readying to launch the same in Q2 of 2021, confirmed a top official of the company. The company is aiming for 60 per cent effectiveness of the vaccine but it could also be more, he added.

Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with ICMR, is working on Covaxin. Bharat Biotech commenced Phase III trials of the vaccine earlier this month, with 26,000 volunteers from 25 centres in India participating in it.

It is the largest clinical trial being conducted for a Coronavirus vaccine candidate in India. During the trial, the volunteers will be monitored over the next year to detect any occurrence of Covid-19 disease.

The volunteers will receive two intra-muscular injections approximately 28 days apart. The participants will be randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either two 6 microgram (mcg) injections of Covaxin or two shots of a placebo.

The trial is double-blinded which means that the investigators, the participants and the company will not be aware of who is assigned to which group. Earlier, Covaxin was evaluated in 1,000 subjects during phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.