Centre’s Principal Economic Advisor talks COVID vaccine, shares need for 'mass-scaling'

As the growth in India's Coronavirus cases drop, the biggest question plaguing most citizens is 'When and how will we get a COVID-19 vaccine?' Shedding light on the logistics involved in vaccine production and distribution, India's principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal spoke with Republic Executive Editor Niranjan Narayanaswamy on Friday. Echoing PM Modi's views on planning effective distribution mechanisms for vaccines, like India's polling system, Sanyal said, 'We (Indians) are good at bandobast, we will get it done'. Recently, the Centre allotted Rs. 900 crore for research related to COVID-19 vaccine development excluding the cost of vaccine or logistics for vaccine distribution.

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Sanyal on vaccine: 'No mean task'

"Whichever set of vaccines become available, India will have to do mass scaling. We are by far the biggest generic (drug) producers in the world. Whichever vaccine is available, it will have to be produced in India. We have to supply it 1.35 billion people in India and billions outside India, which is no easy task. Currently, the largest logistic industrialists are trying to figure out how to do this," Sanjeev Sanyal.

He added, "We Indians do not give ourselves enough credit. We are good at bandobast - be it Kumbh mela or elections. We will get it done, believe me".

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Pfizer: 'Vaccine 90% effective'

Earlier this week, Pfizer said its COVID vaccine was more than 90% effective based on interim trial results, significantly higher than the at least 50% efficacy regulators are looking for. Earlier, speaking to ANI, AIIMS Randeep Guleria emphasised on the need to keep the vaccine at a low temperature, stating that Pfizer's vaccine has a lot of potential. In India, currently, there are three candidates in various stages of testing in India.

"The challenge with the Pfizer vaccine is that it has to be kept at a very low temperature, -70 degree Centigrade. That for low and middle-income countries would be a big challenge to maintain the cold chain, because having a vaccine to be kept at low temperatures especially going to smaller towns, rural India is going to be a challenge. This vaccine has a lot of potential but we will need to see as other vaccines also come out," said Guleria.

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India's vaccine candidates

• Bharat Biotech - ICMR (BBV 152): Phase I & Phase- 2 clinical trials have completed. Phase-3 trials are ongoing at 25 centres across India with a total of 26,000 participants.
• Cadila-Zydus (ZyCOV-D): Phase I clinical trials completed, revealing its safety. Enrolment and dosing of 1,000 volunteers for Phase-2 clinical trials completed, is likely to enter Phase III final stage of clinical trials by December.
• Serum-ICMR & Oxford-AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1-S): Globally, this vaccine is undergoing phase-3 clinical trials in Brazil. In India, enrollment for phase-3 clinical trials completed with 1,600 participants at 15 locations. The trials were halted briefly when AstraZeneca paused trials due to a volunteer inflicted with a strange disease. After Oxford conducted safety evaluations, DCGI allowed India trials to resume
• Serum-ICMR & Novavax: Trials will be initiated in the second half of October after the vaccine is manufactured by SII.

COVISHIELD Covid vaccine's enrolment for Phase III clinical trials done: Serum Institute