Six Indian companies are working on a vaccine for coronavirus. According to reports, nearly 70 ‘vaccine candidates’ are being tested and at least three have moved to the human clinical trial stage.
Sources, however, revealed that a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is unlikely to be ready for mass use before 2021.
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Pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila is working on two vaccines whereas the rest of the companies like Serum Institute, Biological E, Bharat Biotech, Indian Immunologicals, and Mynvax are developing one vaccine each.
Vaccine testing first begins with animal and lab testing before moving onto the human testing phase which is a long and complex process.
The first phase of human trials of a vaccine involves a few participants to assess whether the vaccine is safe for humans.
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The second phase often involves several hundred subjects and mainly evaluates the efficacy of the vaccine against the disease.
The final phase involves thousands of people to further assess the efficacy of the vaccine over a defined period of time and can last several months.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said that a COVID-19 vaccine is the only thing which is the need of the hour to save human lives from the global coronavirus pandemic.
“A safe and effective vaccine may be the only tool that can return the world to a sense of ‘normalcy,’ saving millions of lives and countless trillions of dollars,” he added.
As per reports, six Indian companies are currently working on a vaccine for COVID-19.