If all goes on well, India might get COVID-19 vaccine by year-end: Union Minister of Health

August 24: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan has said that if everything goes well, India would get a vaccine against the novel coronavirus by the end of this year. Three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including two indigenous ones, are in different phases of development in India. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said one of the three COVID-19 vaccine candidates has entered the third phase of the pre-clinical human trial.

In a tweet in Hindi, Vardhan said on Saturday, “I hope that if everything goes well, India will get a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.” The Serum Institute of India, which has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford has been permitted for conducting its phase two and three human clinical trials in India. It is likely to start the trials next week. As per reports, the Indian government has sought 68 crore doses for 130 crore Indians, from Serum Institute by June next year.

कब तक आएगी #कोरोना की #vaccine ?

पत्रकारों के इस सवाल पर मैंने उम्मीद जताई कि अगर सब कुछ ठीक रहा तो भारत इस साल के आखिर तक #coronavaccine हासिल कर लेगा। @MoHFW_INDIA @CSIR_IND @NDRFHQ pic.twitter.com/zqAxftKUdt

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) August 22, 2020

ICMR director General Dr Balram Bhargava said that the phase-one human clinical trials of the two indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidates, one developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and the other by Zydus Cadila Ltd, have been completed and the trials have moved to phase-two.