COVID-19 vaccine likely by end of this year or early next year: AIIMS Doctor

Two days after announcing that All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi will conduct the human clinical trial of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, the head of Centre for Community Medicine Department in AIIMS, Dr Sanjay K Rai said that there are chances that by end of this year or early next year, we will have a vaccine.

"Launching of the vaccine depends on its overall trial. We will have to check the effectiveness of the vaccine for at least six months. By the end of this year or early next year, there are chances that we will have a vaccine," Dr Rai told ANI.

Earlier in the day, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria said that the trial will be conducted in three phases.

"Phase 1 vaccine trial will be conducted on healthy people aged 18-55 years who have no co-morbidity. A total of 1125 samples have been collected of which 375 people will be studied in the first phase and 750 people between 12-65 years will be studied in the second phase," said Guleria.

"To test the efficacy and effectiveness of the vaccine a trial will be conducted under phase-3. The trail will be conducted in AIIMS," he added.

AIIMS Ethics Committee on Saturday gave its approval for conducting the human clinical trial of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin.

The country's top drug regulator had recently given a green signal for human clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin, which has been developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the ICMR and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).