As India and the world inch closer to finding a way out of the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the ICMR, has shown encouraging results in trials, as per a research paper.
Accoridng to a media report, the vaccine showed long-term antibody and T-cell memory responses, three months after the shot in phase 1 volunteers, and tolerable safety outcomes in phase 2 study. Officials also said that the antibodies are liekly to last for about 12 months post inoculation. “In phase 2, it also showed enhanced humoral and cell-mediated immune responses and the results were found in the safety and immunogenicity clinical trial of the vaccine candidate,” the report read.
In a double-blind, randomised, multi-centre phase 2 clinical trials, a total of 380 healthy children and adults were randomised and administered two vaccine formulations in as many doses (four weeks apart).
In a follow-up of the phase 1 trial, Covaxin produced high levels of neutralising antibodies that remained elevated in all participants three months+ after the second vaccination, the PTI report said.
Based on these results, we hypothesise that BBV152 can generate antibodies that may persist for 6-12 months, Bharat Biotech said in a research paper on Covaxin.
The results from the phase 2 study show that both humoral and cell-mediated responses were observed. Covaxin was well tolerated in both dose groups with no serious adverse events.
Bharat Biotech announced that they have crossed the half-way mark, with 13,000 volunteers enrolled for phase 3 trials