Congress attacks ICMR for targeting mid-August Covid vaccine launch; Ramesh gets sarcastic

Congress leer Jairam Ramesh on Sunday hit out at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for anuncing its plans to launch its indigeus COVID vaccine by mid-August claiming that it was dangerous to 'anunce delines' just to 'make helines.' Calling ICMR 'Sarvagyani’ (kw-it-all), Congress leer claimed that anuncing delines could destroy ICMR's credibly and violate its rms and safety protocols. 

Jairam Ramesh also quoted reports of Bharat Biotech's founder Krishna Ella's interview suggesting that vaccine could only complete Phase-1 trials by August. He also quoted WHO's Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan saying that a vaccine's Phase-3 trials were most important for testing its efficacy.  Asking  ICMR to 'come clean and save its reputation,' Congress leer lashed out at medical body saying that 'scientific and ethical guidelines can t be compromised.'

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ICMR aims to launch vaccine by August 15

Issuing a statement earlier in day, ICMR said that it aims to launch  BBV152 COVID vaccine in partnership with Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) for public use by August 15, 2020, after completing all clinical trials. BBIL is working efficiently to meet target, however, final outcome depends on cooperation of all clinical trial sites involved in this project, ICMR said.

For  human clinical trial of India’s first COVID-19 vaccine,  ICMR has shortlisted 12 institutes, including one from Odisha.  apex body selected 12 institutes to fast track clinical trials of vaccine which is one of top priority projects monitored by Central government.

" vaccine is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and BBIL are jointly working for pre-clinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine," an official said.

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