'Animal trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin successful': Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech, the Indian pharmaceutical company which is in the fray for developing COVID-19 vaccine, has announced on Friday that the animal trials of its vaccine candidate 'Covaxin' were successful. In a huge success in the fight against the deadly pandemic, the Hyderabad based company took to Twitter to make the announcement of the vaccine candidate's "protective efficacy and immunogenicity on Non-Human Primates".

READ | China To Conduct Trials In November For First Nasal Spray Vaccine To Combat COVID-19

READ | COVID Numbers Explained: Centre Cites Aggressive Testing & Reducing Mortality As Key Wins

'Generates robust immune responses'

A detailed release linked to the tweet stated that the two-dose vaccination regimen of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates was administered in 20 rhesus macaques which were divided into four groups equally.

While one group was administered with placebo, three groups were immunised with three different vaccine candidates at zero and 14 days. All the macaques were exposed to viral challenge 14 days after the second dose.

The results showed protective efficacy, increasing SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies, reducing replication of the virus in the nasal cavity, throat, and lung tissues of monkey.

No evidence of pneumonia was observed in vaccinated groups, "unlike the placebo group which showed features of interstitial pneumonia and localisation of viral antigen in the alveolar epithelium and macrophages by immunohistochemistry", the release noted about the study's observations.

"To summarize, the vaccine candidate was found to generate robust immune responses. Thus, preventing infection and disease in the primates upon high amounts of exposure to live SARS-CoV-2 virus," the statement concluded.

Covaxin is the first of the indigenously developed vaccine against COVID-19 by India. Phase II of the vaccine candidate's human clinical trial began this week at Post Graduate Institute (PGI) Rohtak. The trial is being conducted on 50 volunteers at PGIMS, Rohtak, of the total 380 volunteers across the country and twelve volunteers, between 12 and 65 years of age, were administered the first dose of Covaxin on Wednesday morning. The Covid-19 vaccine is being developed Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Besides the Covaxin, India has two more vaccine candidates in the run. Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D and another one is being developed by Serum Institute of India in collaboration with the Oxford University vaccine and UK's Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. However, the Serum Institute has halted trials for its vaccine Covishield after a show-cause notice by Drugs Controller General of India.

READ | Ivanka Trump Pacifies TV Host, Offers To Take Coronavirus Vaccine On Her Show