Vaccine by the end of 2020 possible, says Union health minister
New Delhi/IBNS: Union health and family welfare minister Dr Harshvardhan said on Monday that a vaccine might be ready in the country by the end of this year, said media report.
The minister said India is not lagging behind anyone else in the world in efforts to contribute towards the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
There are 7-8 vaccine candidates, three of them in the clinical trial phase and the rest in the pre-clinical phase, he informed.
Currently, two vaccine candidates developed in India — Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila are in the midst of phase II clinical trial, while Covishield by the University of Oxford has recently started the phase II clinical trial in India.
Vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca has entered into an agreement with Serum Institute of India to manufacture Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for India and countries in the low-income group.
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