The Financial Express : Jul 22, 2020, 01:01 PM
New Delhi: As all around the world the focus is now on a vaccine for Coronavirus, NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul said on Tuesday that discussions are on as to how the COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to all those who need it.ANI reported Dr Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, as saying that two of India’s COVID-19 vaccines are in phase 1 and 2 of trials and discussions have begun as to how the vaccines will be made available to all those who require it.The Government of India will ensure people of India and the international community have access to an Indian vaccine as early as possible, the NITI Aayog member avered, and added that all possible facilitation will be ensured to make sure the trials are conducted scientifically and ethically and that an affordable option is found.As of now, the human trials of India’s indigenous COVAXIN are scheduled to take place at AIIMS-Delhi, Redkar Hospital in Goa, and Bhubaneswar’s Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, among other places. AIIMS Patna and PGI Rohtak have already begun conducting the clinical trials of the potential COVID-19 vaccine that is being jointly developed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), National Institute of Virology, Pune, and Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL).Also on the list of probable centres where clinical trials of Covaxin will be conducted are medical institutes and hospitals located in Visakhapatnam, Belgaum in Karnataka, Nagpur, Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur and Kanpur, Tamil Nadu’s Kattankulathur, Hyderabad, and Arya Nagar.So far, the coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has shown the most promising results as the scientists conducting the trial said on Monday that the vaccine can generate both antibodies and cell-mediated immune responses. The scientist community reacted to the potential breakthrough calling it very promising and interesting, while cautioning that there is still a long way to go.