India Will Be the Vaccine Producer- AIIMS To Start The Largest COVAXIN Human Trial

The battle against the COVID-19 pandemic has reached a crucial stage in India as Human trials of Indian vaccine have begun. 2 vaccines that have been developed by India have been approved for human trials by DGCI. Union health and family welfare Minister Dr. Harshvardhan has said that the fight against COVID has entered a decisive phase as the human trial of the Indian vaccine has begun. In hopeful development, initial trials on humans did not have any side effects on the participants. The trials will be in two phases and will be done on 14 research institutions across the country. The emphasis remains on safety and screening with ICMR scientists keeping a constant vigil on the matter. AIIMS Delhi will start the human trial from today. This will be the biggest center for COVAXIN trials in the nation. Out of the constant supervision from ICMR 100 volunteers, between the ages of 18 to 55 years will be part of the crucial trials at the nation’s premier medical institute. Corona, as well as a liver test, will be undertaken before the trial.

The all India institute of medical sciences has said that the human trial of the COVID vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech and the Indian council for medical research will undergo human trials from today. 12 sites have been selected by the Indian council for medical research. The vaccine was developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and the national institute of virology. DGCI had permitted two vaccines and one of them is COVAXIN. As far as the COVAXIN is concerned approximately 375 candidates will be selected and the ethics committee of all India institutes of medical sciences, Delhi, has just its nod for human tests in their institute, approximately 100 Candidates will be tested. AIIMS has started the testing in its Patna site, but this will be a major boost as far as the testing of this particular vaccine. This will be the first phase of testing and later phase two and phase three testing will be done. This is a good sign of the development of the vaccine. The fight is quite tough and only with these processes being progressed further can we say that we are making progress. The nod has been given after a proper consultation because there were certain questions raised by the ethics committee and the nod has been given only after all these questions have been addressed properly by the doctors and other people involved in this entire operation of human testing that has to be started today. The volunteers can come forward and give their names for this test. The trials at AIIMS Patna and PGI Rohtak have already begun as they have received the approval much earlier. The selection of volunteers along with the formalities like the screening of participants will kick start at AIIMS today. More than 1000 people have registered within the 10 hours of the AIIMS ethical committee approving the human clinical trials on Saturday. 

Win it or lose it- India is the only key to 100% success: 

While the vaccine race is turning into a war, India is secure in its self-knowledge. It does not matter who finds the vaccine, India will be called upon to mass-produce it. One out of three vaccines in the world is made in India and this capability pits India in a very special position, a position with great responsibility. As the vaccine race is heating the global focus is shifting to India, known as the pharmacy of the world. India needs to play its unique role. All over the world, there is 140 vaccine candidates out of the 11 that has successfully entered human trials, two are from India. Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN got the knot first. ZYDUS CADILLA’s ZyCov- D followed soon. They are inches closer to the finish line. But the global vaccine candidate is the forerunner, India may or may not win the vaccine race but no vaccine would succeed without India. That’s because discovering a vaccine is only half the battle. The second equally important task is to manufacture enough doses and we are not talking thousands here we’re talking millions. Mass production and affordable prices make the vaccine accessible to all countries, rich and poor. This great responsibility rests on India’s shoulder. Currently, one out of three vaccines sold in the world is made in India. Every year India produces 3 billion doses of vaccine. The cost of production and clinical trials is the lowest in the world. Take the example of the Rotarix vaccine; it is used to treat Rotavirus infection. This is a guest to infection that particularly affects children. India made the vaccine 15 times cheaper.

India is also home to the largest vaccine manufacturer- The Serum Institute of India. The company makes over 1.5 billion doses every year and its vaccine are exported to 170 countries. Its role in global polio eradication must be underlined. It could potentially make the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine which is one of the two leading vaccine candidates. The company says, in a single year it can churn out 700 to 800 million doses of the COVID 19 vaccine. Each shot for 13 dollars, the cheapest in the world. 

“We know that India has a very important vaccine manufacturing industry. About 70% of the vaccines used around the world for external immunization programs are made in India. I mean almost every child in the world has received a vaccine made in India and that’s important. It means that Indian companies put out a billion vaccines a year -CNN

Bill gates say only India can make the vaccine for the entire world. As early as April, even China admitted Indian pharmaceutical prowess. Currently, at least 6 Indian pharmaceutical companies are working with global institutes. So, not one but multiple COVID-19 vaccines could be made in India. To sum it up, the Forehand virus vaccine, developed anywhere in the world will be made in India.

India is a country with 1.3 billion populations and also comprises 45% of its population under the poverty line. The diseases in the past have affected us so much so that even today the disease which is extinct in western countries prevails here. Hence the need for mass production is indeed necessary one. India has a unique role and it’s willing to even participate in it. This race for the vaccine is very important as the vaccine has been the only optimistic sign in the pandemic. With the growing number of cases each day spiking, countries around the world cannot see any way out of this other than the production of a vaccine that can be reliable. But the vaccine is still on the waiting list, the news of even one progress, the one-step we take in the victory against COVID-19 is major happiness to us. With keeping our hopes high, all we can do is wait and see how the vaccine turns out to be and how India can play its major role.