COVID-19: Will COVAXIN launch on August 15?

New Delhi, Aug 13: Bharat Biotech International, which is developing India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, COVAXIN has said that it cannot rush to launch the drug.

The company said that safety and quality are paramount.

Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International said that there is a tremendous pressure on us to develop the vaccine. But for us, safety and quality are paramount. We don't want to kill more people with the wrong vaccine," Ella said during an interaction with members of the Chennai International Centre on 'Covid-19 Endgame Scenarios' according to a report in the Business Standard.

This rules out the possibility of the vaccine releasing on August 15. While it was hugely touted that the vaccine would release on Independence Day, the ICMR clarified that the letter sent by the DG-ICMR to investigators of the clinical trial sites was meant to cut unnecessary red tape, without bypassing any necessary process and speed up the recruitment of participants.

"ICMR's process is exactly in accordance with globally accepted norms to fast-track the vaccine development for diseases of pandemic potential wherein human and animal trials can continue in parallel," ICMR said in a release.

A report in the Hindustan Times said that BBIL said that the human trials of Covaxin started on July 15. The company has jointly developed the vaccine along with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The Drug Controller General of India had granted permission to initiate Phase I and II human clinical trials after the company submitted results generated from pre-clinical studies, demonstrating safety and immune response.