With the rampant increase in number of COVID19 cases, people across the globe are eagerly expecting a coronavirus vaccine to arrive to the market. Recently, India’s indigenous coronavirus vaccine, a vaccine produced by Bharat Biotech in partnership with ICMR’S National Institute of Virology has started conducting trials across the country but the time it could take to hit the market continues to be a concern.
On July2, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that they are hoping to have a vaccine by August 15. However, the institute never claimed that august 15 is a deadline. According to the announcement, the institute wanted to "launch the vaccine for public health use latest by August 15". As opposed to WhatsApp forwards and claims made through social media posts, there is no surety that the vaccine might be available in the market from 15 August.
A letter from ICMR regarding fast-tracking clinical trials of the vaccine is also doing the rounds. “Bharat Biotech vaccine received permission from central government from August 15 it will be available in market as corona vaccine. Great news today see official permission,” it read.
Subsequently there was an outrage from the medical community regarding the vaccine skipping clinical trials. ICMR clarified stating that the process of fast tracking the coronavirus trials is done as per globally accepted norms of fast tracking and that the safety as well as interest of people of India is the topmost priority.
"ICMR’s process is exactly in accordance with globally accepted norms to fast-track the vaccine development for diseases of pandemic potential wherein human and animal trials can continue in parallel," ICMR said in a release.
While human trials for COVAXIN, India’s indigenous coronavirus vaccine candidate are being conducted in different parts of the country, no information regarding the availability of the vaccine for human use in the market has been announced yet.
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