COVID-19 vaccine may be available by June 2021: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

New Delhi, Oct 24: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, MD and Chairperson of Bengaluru-based Biocon Ltd has on Friday said that she expects coronavirus vaccine to be available in India in the first quarter of 2021-22 but pointed out that delivering the vaccine to all Indians will be challenging.

"I expect by January...vaccines...like AstraZeneca's, or one of our own Indian vaccines, like the one by Bharat Biotech [could be approved]," she told livemint. "But these will be emergency use authorisation only," she added.

Shaw elaborated that the first mRNA vaccines will be approved by the end of 2021, but they are not going to be available in India as they need a -80 degree cold chain and that is not something which the country can handle.

"I expect that by January, some of the other vaccines could be approved like AstraZeneca's, or one of our own Indian vaccines, like the one by Bharat Biotech. If we finish the clinical trials in the next 2-3 months, even those may be approved by January-February. So, I would expect that in Q1 2021-22 we should have vaccines available in India", Shaw further added.

On Friday, Biocon announced its September quarter earnings which saw a net profit fall of Rs 169 crore from Rs 216 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Meanwhile, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) clears Covaxin, the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the third phase of clinical trials.

Besides, Bharat Biotech, an indigenously developed vaccine candidate by Zydus Cadila Ltd is also in Phase 2 of human clinical trials.