First COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech gets DCGI approval, human trials to begin in July

India’s first COVID-19 vaccine candidate COVAXIN has received the approval of drug regulator DCGI for phase I and II of human clinical trials. The drug has been developed by Bharat Biotech.

Human clinical trials are scheduled to start across India in July 2020.

It has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated in NIV, Pune and transferred to Bharat Biotech.

The indigenous, inactivated vaccine has been developed and manufactured by Bharat Biotech.

A number of drug manufacturers across the globe are working to find a cure for



coronavirus, but no pharmaceutical firm has won the race yet.

Earlier Monday Reuters reported that China's military has received the greenlight to use a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics after clinical trials proved it was safe and showed some efficacy.

Several drugs have been tested for their effectiveness against COVID-19, the disease resulting from coronavirus, but they have fallen short. Gilead Sciences' remdesivir has been found to be effective in reducing the time spent in hospital  by infected patients, but a cure is yet to find.

COVID-19 has infected more than 10 million people globally and has killed half a million.