India's first Coronavirus vaccine to be launched by Aug 15; PM may make official announcement during his Independence Day speech

NEW DELHI: On August 15, 2020, Prime Minister will hoist the tricolour at Red Fort and deliver the Independence day speech but this time, the speech will have something very special for India and world at large. He is expected to officially announce the launch of Covid vaccine developed by India during his address to the nation.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been fast-tracking efforts to develop "Covaxin" in partnership with Bharat Biotech International Limited. This will be country's first made-in-India coronavirus vaccine.

A dozen institutes have been selected for clinical trials of the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine (BBV152 COVID vaccine), the government's top medical research body has said.

The institutes have been asked by the ICMR to step up clinical trials as it is a "priority project" monitored at the topmost level of the government.

"The vaccine is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and BBIL are jointly working for the pre-clinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine," the ICMR said in a letter to the institutes.

The ICMR talked about plans to launch the vaccine for public health use by August 15, Independence Day, after all clinical trials are completed.

The final outcome will depend on the cooperation of all clinical trial sites involved in this project, the ICMR told the institutes, advising them to speed up approvals related to clinical trials and ensure that subjects are enrolled starting this week.

"Non-compliance will be viewed very seriously. Therefore, you are advised to treat this project on highest priority and meet the given timelines without any lapse," said ICMR's letter.

The institutes selected for the clinical trial are in Visakhapatnam, Rohtak, New Delhi, Patna, Belgaum (Karnataka), Nagpur, Gorakhpur, Kattankulathur (Tamil Nadu), Hyderabad, Arya Nagar, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Goa.

Worldwide, scientists are racing to produce a vaccine for Corona virus that has infected over 10 million and caused more than 500,000 deaths.