Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, was found to have a 77.8% efficacy rate against symptomatic Covid-19, as per an analysis published in The Lancet.
The efficacy was analysed through evaluation of 130 confirmed cases, with 24 observed in the vaccine group versus 106 in the placebo group.
The Lancet in a statement stated that Covaxin, which uses traditional, inactivated-virus technology, “induces a robust antibody response” two weeks after two doses are given. No severe-vaccine-related deaths or adverse events were recorded during a randomized trial involving 24,419 participants aged 18-97 years between Nov. 2020 and May 2021 in India, the medical journal said.
The efficacy data of the vaccine also demonstrates 63.6% protection against asymptomatic COVID-19, 65.2% protection against the SARS-CoV-2, B.1.617.2 Delta variants, and 70.8% protection against all variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The interim study, which was funded by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research and partly authored by officials at both bodies, is in line with the company’s earlier efficacy and safety announcements and may help end the controversy surrounding the shot’s early authorization in January in India.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has described Covaxin as “extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements”. Some of the other approved vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures, which throws up logistical and cost problems.
Covaxin has joined the anti-Covid vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm, and Sinovac on the WHO-approved list.
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The roll-out of Covaxin can “increase the finite global manufacturing capacity, and improve the insufficient supply of vaccines which disproportionately affects low-income and middle-income countries”, said Chinese researchers Li Jingxin Li and Zhu Fengcai, who did not take part in the study.
In the early weeks of the inoculation drive, Covaxin faced widespread hesitancy, following which Prime Minister Narendra Modi got a shot of Covaxin. Since then more than 100 million doses of Covaxin have been deployed across India and last week the World Health Organization added the inoculation to its list of Covid vaccines authorized for emergency use.
Yet in the course of its analysis, the WHO independent technical body studying the vaccine repeatedly asked the company for further information, delaying its addition to the body’s pre-qualified list. Defending the vaccine, Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna Ella while speaking at Times Now summit said that the delay in granting the EUA by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Covaxin, was to be blamed on the “negative campaign” against the vaccine in India.
Also Read: Covaxin Maker Bats for Booster Shots in India, Says Ideal After 6 Months of 2nd Dose
However, the Lancet added that further research will be needed to discover the vaccine’s long-term safety and effectiveness, as well as protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death, along with its ability to fend off delta and other variants of concern.
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