Indian company Bharat Biotech said on Saturday its late-stage testing of a COVID-19 vaccine has shown an overall efficacy of 77.8% and effectiveness against all variants.
The company in a statement said it is now in discussions with the World Health Organisation to obtain emergency use listing for its vaccine, marketed as Covaxin, reports Gulf News.
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The results set to rest questions raised by health experts over Bharat Biotech’s vaccine when it was given emergency use authorisation by the Indian government in January.
They felt that the company didn’t have enough clinical trials, making it almost impossible for the firm to have analysed and submitted data showing that its shots are effective in preventing illness from the coronavirus.
The company says the vaccine has already received emergency use authorizations in 16 countries including India, the Philippines, Iran and Mexico. Millions of Indian also have been inoculated with the same vaccine.
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It says the late-stage trial showed the vaccine was 93.4% effective against severe symptomatic COVID-19 and showed effectiveness of 77.8% against symptomatic COVID-19. The data also demonstrated 65.2% protection against the delta variant, first identified in India.
Last month, vaccine maker AstraZeneca Plc also said its vaccine was effective against the Delta and Kappa variants, citing a study.
India has been administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, made domestically by the Serum Institute of India, which said last month it planned to step up monthly production from July, to nearly 100 million doses.
Bharat Biotech now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month.
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The Phase-III data came as Ocugen Inc, which is co-developing Covaxin with Bharat Biotech for the US market, prepares to file a request for full US approval.
India, with a tally of 30.45 million infections, is the second most affected nation after the United States, with 33 million. The south Asian nation’s death toll has now crossed 400,000.