Are we close to a coronavirus vaccine? All you need to know

New Delhi, June 30: The country's 'first' indigenous COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN, is all set for for human clinical trials as the global vaccine race kicks up another notch.

COVAXIN, developed by city-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV will undergo Human clinical trials across India in July 2020.

The Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of the vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, approved after pre-clinical studies demonstrated safety and immune response, would start across the country next month.

India, a leading manufacturer of vaccines and generic medicines, is expected to play a key role in this race, with several institutes working on different drugs.

Besides Bharat Biotech, at least five other Indian companies are working on a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus including Zydus Cadila, Serum Institute of India and Panacea Biotec. However, all of them are in pre-clinical stage as of now.

Similar efforts are underway in different countries. Precisely, there are nearly 150 vaccine candidates under development currently, of which 17 are undergoing human trials. University of Oxford's vaccine is the furthest in the trial, currently in the third phase, while there are various candidates in the second phase.

Moderna Inc, Chinese Sinovac Biotech and Oxford-AstraZeneca experimental vaccines are all expected to go into late-stage trials in the coming month.