India is planning to have an indigenous Covid vaccine for children by September. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National Institute of Virology (Pune) director Priya Abraham said that the phase II and III trials of Covaxin for the 2-18 age group is in progress.
Director Abraham said that “Hopefully, the results (of the trials) are going to be available very soon. The results will be presented to the regulators. So, by September or just after it, we may have Covid-19 vaccines for children.”
ICMR and Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech co-developed Covaxin. It is India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine. It is one among the three vaccines which being administered in India under the national Covid-19 immunization programme, while the other two are the Russian Sputnik V and Serum Institute of India’s Covishield.
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In January, the Drugs Controller General of India approved Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D for emergency use in the country. Priya Abraham stated that there were no safety concerns while assimilation of different Covid-19 vaccines.
She also added to her statement that “There a situation where inadvertently two different vaccines were given in two doses. We have tested those samples at NIV (National Institute of Virology) and came to a result that the patients who received different vaccines in two doses were safe. Immunogenicity was a little better and no adverse effect was seen. So, it definitely not something which will cause a safety issue.”
