NEW DELHI – India’s Bharat Biotech said its Covid-19 vaccine has been shown to be 81% effective in protecting people in a large clinical trial, a report that could bolster India’s push for vaccination and vaccination diplomacy.
Bharat Biotech is one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, but little known outside the industry. It has been developing a Covid-19 vaccine since the first half of 2020, which New Delhi has approved for emergency use this year. India has already administered the vaccine to more than a million people.
However, many Indians have said they were reluctant to get the Bharat Biotech injection because they wanted to wait for the results of late-stage trials. Vaccination coverage in India is moving much slower than expected, and some health workers said one reason was that people did not trust the Bharat Biotech vaccine.
Queued up for Covid-19 shots in New Delhi last month.
Photo:
T. Narayan / Bloomberg News
The company said with its announcement on Wednesday that it wants to address any concerns. The interim results of the phase 3 study – which gave 25,800 people between the ages of 18 and 98 a vaccine or placebo – suggest it is effective against Covid-19. The company added that it has early indications that it is also effective against the more contagious UK variant of the coronavirus.
“Today is an important day for us, the company and also for the country and Indian science,” said Krishna Ella, the chairman and general manager of Bharat Biotech.
More than 11 million people are infected in India, a number surpassed only by the US. Although fewer Indians are killed by the virus per capita, the country’s economy has been one of the hardest hit.
India is in the midst of what is arguably the world’s most ambitious vaccination drive. It aims to photograph 300 million of its more than 1.3 billion residents by August. It has delivered about 15 million doses to date, most of the vaccine developed in the UK by Oxford University and AstraZeneca PLC and mass-produced in India by the Serum Institute of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed his confidence in the local vaccine this week when he took his first shot of the Bharat Biotech version.
“It is remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in a short time to strengthen the global fight against COVID-19,” he tweeted with a photo of him taking the photo.
As highly transmissible coronavirus variants fly around the world, scientists are rushing to understand why these new versions of the virus are spreading faster and what this could mean for vaccination efforts. New research says the key may be the spike protein, which gives the coronavirus its unmistakable shape. Illustration: Nick Collingwood / WSJ
India has emerged as a surprising frontrunner in vaccine diplomacy, helping most developing countries, and some rich countries as well, as much of the supplies in the US and Europe have been allocated and manufacturers around the world have unexpectedly encountered. bottlenecks in production.
India has been able to send tens of millions of doses abroad due to the massive manufacturing capacity of the Serum Institute of India, which has produced enough AstraZeneca vaccines to supply the local vaccination company with more than enough leftovers for export. It has exported more than 45 million doses to about 45 countries, including Canada, Kenya and Cambodia. About 7 million of those doses have been donated by the Indian government.
With the Phase 3 results, Bharat Biotech also plans to become a major exporter. It said on Wednesday that more than 40 countries were already interested in using the vaccine.
The company is not new to the vaccine race. It has produced billions of doses of other vaccines over the years. It said the Covid-19 vaccine would be particularly competitive with the many on the market because it only needs to be stored in regular refrigerators and doses can be used up to 28 days after a vial is opened. Other vaccines often have to be used within hours of opening, meaning doses not used in a day should be discarded.
The Bharat Biotech vaccine was developed in conjunction with the Indian Medical Research Council, a government organization that said the success of the trial’s late phase was a matter of national pride.
“The journey from couch to bed of a fully indigenous Covid-19 vaccine in less than eight months demonstrates the immense power of self-reliant India to fight the opportunities and stand firm in the global public health community,” said Balram Bhargava , Director General of ICMR. “It is also testament to India’s emergence as a global vaccine superpower.”
—Krishna Pokharel contributed to this article.
Write to Eric Bellman at [email protected]
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