Bharat Biotech Covaxin To Be Launched In Second Quarter Of 2021

India’s Bharat Biotech is planning to launch the vaccine in the second quarter of 2021 if it gets approval from regulatory authorities, a company executive said.

Covaxin is India’s indigenous vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech. It is being developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV) using inactivated SARS-CoV-2.

One of the senior officials of the institute opened up saying that their main focus is to conduct the Phase 3 trials successfully across sites in the country.

It has already got the approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct Phase 3 clinical trial. It has begun site preparatory exercises for Phase 3, recruitment and dosage will begin in November.

“The trial to be conducted in 25 to 30 sites across 13-14 states, will provide two doses each for the vaccine and placebo recipients. About 2,000 subjects could be enrolled per hospital,” Bharat Biotech International executive director Sai Prasad told.

When asked about the supply of the vaccine, it was revealed that they are looking to supply for both government and private markets and also in preliminary discussions with other countries for probable supply.