As Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin awaits World Health Organisation’s (WHO) approval, its’ chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said the Phase-3 trial data of Covaxin looks good.
“I think the Phase-3 trial data (of Covaxin) is good and encouraging. The good thing is that they have also looked at the variants and they are sequenced about 60 percent of the breakthrough variants that were seen in the trial. The overall efficacy is high while efficacy against the Delta variant is comparatively low, but it’s still very good,” she said.
She further said that they are keeping a close eye on all vaccines which have received emergency use listing and continue to seek more data.
Talking about the status of Covaxin’s approval at the WHO, she revealed that while the data has been submitted, “it will be reviewed by a group that looks at safety, quality, good manufacturing practices, and a number of parameters that Bharat Biotech is very familiar with. Hopefully, by mid to late August, we will have a decision on whether or not Covaxin will receive an emergency use approval.”
She stressed that the world could witness another surge in coronavirus cases if the virus mutates further and added primary focus should remain on widening the scope of primary Covid -19 vaccinations.
