NEW DELHI: India’s top medical body on Friday welcomed a study by respected medical journal The Lancet that rated the Indian-made coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as nearly 78 percent effective and presenting no safety concerns.
Developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the National Institute of Virology, Covaxin is an inactivated virus-based COVID-19 vaccine that was approved by the country’s drug regulator in January despite health experts’ concerns that its late-stage trials had not been completed.
It has been used in India’s immunization campaign alongside Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Covaxin recently gained emergency approval from the World Health Organization as being “extremely suitable” for low- and middle-income countries due to its easy storage requirements — it does not need to be kept at very low temperatures, unlike several other WHO-approved jabs.
The Lancet’s study released on Thursday found that Covaxin had a 77.8 percent efficacy rate against symptomatic COVID-19 and was 65.2 percent effective against the highly contagious delta variant. It also said vaccination with the Indian-made jab was “well tolerated with no safety concerns raised in this interim analysis.”
On The Lancet study findings, ICMR chief Dr. Balram Bhargava, said: “The bench to bedside journey of Covaxin in less than 10 months showcases the immense strength of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) along with the Indian academia and industry in fighting against the odds and carving a niche in the global community.”
He added that the vaccine, which had already been authorized for emergency use by several nations, was currently being reviewed by more than 50 other countries.
Bharat Biotech chief, Krishna Ella, said: “The peer review of Covaxin phase three clinical trial data in The Lancet, an authoritative voice in global medicine, validates our commitment to data transparency and meeting the stringent peer-review standards of world-leading medical journals.
“The phase three trial efficacy and safety study involving 25,800 volunteers across 25 sites in India is India’s largest ever clinical trial conducted for a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Dr. Avinash Bhondwe, former chief of the western chapter of the Indian Medical Association, expressed hope that with international recognition Covaxin would be more widely produced.
He told Arab News: “It should be produced at more places, not only in Hyderabad, so that more and more people have access to the indigenous vaccine. It is a good vaccine, clinically and medically it’s excellent.”