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“No vaccine until 2021”- Parliament Panel

Amid the global race to develop a vaccine for the dreaded covid-19, government officials have told the parliamentary standing committee of science and technology that there is no possible vaccine before 2021.

This comes after the ICMR’s statement which claimed that a vaccine will be made ready by August 15th (Independence Day). The top clinical research body of the country had written a letter to Bharat Biotech’s principal to fast-track the development of the vaccine so that the clinical trial can be started by August 15th.

This abrupt and unachievable target was received backlash from the opposition and experts who alleged that the data given was to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in attaining brownie points during the elections to be held in Bihar soon.

However, the Union Health Ministry later clarified the date that it is “only to expedite duly approved clinical trials without compromising on safety and security concerns.”

A senior government official in the meeting said, “Nearly 60 percent of the world’s vaccines are developed in India so we have hope that either India would be in the lead of finding or manufacturing the vaccine.”

Senior officials of the department of biotechnology, department of scientific and industrial research, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the principal scientific advisor to the government, K Vijay Raghavan were present at the meeting.

Experts warned that this quickly developed vaccine could pose serious threats to the health of millions across the country.

ICMR later explained that its letter was “meant to cut unnecessary red tape, without bypassing any necessary process, and speed up recruitment of participants.”

The Ministry of Science and Technology had said that although 11 out of 140 candidates for the development of covid-19 were in the phase of human trials, “none of these are likely to be ready for mass use before 2021”.

This line was, however, deleted, in its revised version which was posted shortly.

Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech in its application had mentioned that there are 15 months for the development of a vaccine which stands in line with the now-deleted statement of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Two of the world’s leading vaccine candidates – AZD1222 (British firm AstraZeneca) and MRNA-1273 (US-based Moderna) – have been cleared for Phase II, III trials.

Bloomberg pointed out the distinctively lesser time being asked by the Indian competitor in developing a vaccine. It reported saying that launch time of Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN is “markedly shorter than other front-runner vaccine efforts from American and Chinese drug makers, most of which started human clinical trials months ago and are now entering the last of three stages of testing.”