The Drug Controller General of India (DGI) on 3rd Jan 2021 gave the final approval to Covaxin and Covishield vaccines against Covid-19 for restricted emergency use in India.
About Covaxin:
- Covaxin is India’s first indigenous vaccine against Covid-19.
- It has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology.
- Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine. An inactivated vaccine is one which is developed by inactivating (killing) the live microorganisims that cause the disease.
- Bharat Biotech conducted phase one and two trials on 800 participants, apart from its several animal trials. Its third trial is going on and a total of 22,500 participants took part in it.
- Bharat Biotech’s vaccine is likely to cost less than Rs 100
About Covishield:
- Covishield has been developed by Oxford University in collaboration with pharma major Astrazeneca.
- India’s Serum Institute is their manufacturing and trial partner.
- Covishield uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein.
- The Serum Institute of India submitted data of phase 1 clinical trial conducted over 23,745 overseas participants showing an overall result of 70.42 efficacy.
- Covishield will cost around Rs 400.
