Renu Swaroop, secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, said on Thursday that the introduction of indigenously developed vaccine for Covid-19 by Zydus Cadila on human beings is an important step towards becoming a ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. Zydus Cadila said on Wednesday that it has started the first and second phase clinical trials under the trial of its Covid-19 vaccine.
Zycovi-D, vaccine has been developed by Zydus. It is partially funded by the Department of Biotechnology under the National Bio-Medicine Campaign. The department’s secretary said in a statement that this has become the first vaccine developed indigenously for Covid-19 in the country to be tested on humans. He said that this development is also a big achievement for the scientific community.
They said, “This is an important step towards becoming a self-reliant India because Zydus has started clinical trials of indigenously developed vaccines on humans. We hope that this vaccine will continue to produce meaningful results, as it did in the pre-clinical phase where it was found to be safe (for human use), immune and tolerable. ”
The statement said that in the first and second stages of clinical trials on human beings, research will be done on the vaccine to be safe and effective. Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Zycovi-D and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is the only two vaccines that have received approval from the Pharmaceutical Regulatory Institution for testing humans.
Swaroop said, “This partnership with Zydus fulfills the country’s need for vaccines to fight the epidemic.” This epidemic has become a threat to one billion people.” She said that efforts of such research will also help in formulating strategies to prevent the spread of a disease in future.
It will draw the attention of the government to create a new environment, which will encourage the innovation of new products to make real and measurable changes in the issues most relevant to our society. Zydus Cadila chief Pankaj Patel has said that the introduction of vaccine testing on humans is a very important step in the fight against the epidemic and it will help the nation to deal with health challenges.