THE MUCH AWAITED VACCINE TRIALS SET TO BEGIN THIS WEEK! WILL INDIA GET ITS FIRST CORONA VACCINE? DETAILS

The quest to discover the right vaccine to treat coronavirus is still ongoing since scientists across the globe are working towards finding a vaccine. India is preparing three vaccines at the moment. The country has a lot of hopes tied to the Oxford University’s vaccine candidate which will be manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII). 

Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine candidate ADZ-1222 was developed in collaboration with Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The vaccine is currently undergoing the final phase of trials and is about to commence mid and late scale trials in India. 

Serum Institute of India is spearheading trials and production of the vaccine in the country. Trials will be commencing across selected research centres in the country. SII is working on developing a low-cost vaccine. The trials are scheduled to take place in 10 different locations, following which it will be held in more locations across the country. 

Around 1600 volunteers will be a part of the trials. Healthy volunteers who do not have a history of contracting COVID-19 over the past few months are the ones who have been selected for the trials. Vaccine trials also do not involve older people or younger children at this stage. The trials for vaccine are held in order to understand whether the vaccine can induce good immune response in the body and to ensure that it does not cause side effects. The analysis is done after 58 days of dosing. Reportedly, the vaccine dosage is likely to be spaced two weeks apart. 

“Serum Institute of India plans to reserve at least 50% of the vaccine doses for the Indian population if the vaccine is approved for use. The vaccine will be sold under the means of 'pandemic pricing' and capped affordably so that all sections of the population would have easy access to it. There are also reports which suggest that early doses of the vaccine could be made available for as little as Rs. 250-300 per jab, making it one of the cheapest vaccines under the offering,” Times of India reported.