India’s Wait For COVID-19 Vaccine Likely To Get Longer: Experts

Bhubaneswar: India may have to wait until February-March before a vaccine to fight COVID-19 can hit the market, said medical experts familiar with the development.

The governments at the Centre and the states need to mobilise communities for effective implementation of other precautionary measures such as physical distancing, wearing mask, hand and face hygiene, along with attention to flu-like symptoms to contain the spread of virus, they said at a webinar organised by the Forum for Odisha Dialogues on “Odisha Post Corona: The Road to Recovery”.

India is looking at two options – the vaccine that is being developed by the Oxford University, which has a tie-up with the Pune-based Serum Institute, and the COVAXIN that is being developed by Indian pharma companies. While the Oxford vaccine has entered simultaneous trials for phase 2 and 3 in India, phase 1 trials of COVAXIN were completed in the second week of September.

“The Indian government is pinning much hope on the indigenous COVAXIN,” said Dr Bidhu Kalyan Mohanti, who has studied the ethical issues and other approvals relating to the development of the vaccine.

“If we get robust results on human safety and lasting immunogenicity, then the subsequent trials and associated procedures can be completed, and commercial production commence around February-March, 2021,” Dr. Mohanti said.

Earlier, it was expected that India might get its vaccine by October-November, but it  is unlikely, said Prof Ramnath Misra. “We could see the vaccine development process getting completed January in next year,” said Misra, who heads the department of immunology at Bhubaneswar-based Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences.

In the absence of a vaccine being available for at least another six months, it is important that we continue to focus on all the appropriate precautionary measures including community-level quarantine, said Dr. Vandana Prasad, national convenor of the Public Health Resource Network.

“Eighty percent of the cases are going to be handled by communities. So we have to build capacity of communities to deal with them,” she said.

Rajesh Mahapatra, the founder of Odisha Dialogues, said the forum plans to deliberate more on this aspect as Odisha, being home to a large population of economically poor, needs a well implemented public healthcare system more than any other state.