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A vaccine for coronavirus cannot be expected before early next year, a top official of CSIR-CCMB said on Saturday, just a day after ICMR said it aims to launch the world's first vaccine by August 15. The ICMR's letter in this regard may be for internal consumption and aimed at putting pressure on hospitals to get ready for clinical human trials, Rakesh K Mishra, Director of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology said.
"If everything goes absolutely really like a textbook plan, then we are talking about six to eight months to think of something that now we have a vaccine. Because you to have to test in large numbers. It is not like a drug that if somebody is sick you give and see if it is cured or not," Mishra told PTI when asked about the possibility of the vaccine becoming ready by August 15.
Earlier on Friday, the ICMR wrote to select medical institutions and hospitals to fast-track clinical trial approvals for the coronavirus vaccine candidate Covaxin, being developed in collaboration with Bharat Biotech, a city-based vaccine maker, which it plans to release on August 15.
"Actually vaccine development takes many years, but you are in very desperate conditions. Maybe by the beginning of the next year if the vaccine clicks, we can expect. Not before that. Before that (it is) very unlikely as far as I understand," Mishra said. He added that thousands of people are given vaccine during clinical trials and one has to wait for the data and results which normally takes months.
The ICMR had said twelve clinical trial sites were identified and asked the medical institutions and principal investigators to ensure that the subject enrolment is initiated no later than July 7. ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava in his letter to principal investigators of the 12 sites said that it is one of the "top priority projects which is being monitored at the top-most level of the government."
Meanwhile, several scientists said India's COVID-19 vaccine programme has gained sudden traction but it is important to strike a balance between giving it high priority and rushing into a process that takes months, even years.
“Fast tracking a vaccine trial in four weeks for safety, immunogenicity and efficacy is just not possible if things are to be done correctly,” Shahid Jameel, virologist and CEO of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, a public charity that invests in building biomedical sciences and health research framework, told PTI.
(With PTI inputs)
