A US-based top medical research agency said that India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine is capable of neutralizing both Alpha and Delta variants.
Indian Vaccine impresses the US
India’s Covaxin, produced by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, efficiently neutralises both the Alpha (B.1.1.7) and Delta (B.1.617) variants of coronavirus, the U.S.’ National Institute of Health has said.
The NIH revealed outcomes of two studies of blood serum from people who had received Covaxin suggest that the vaccine generates antibodies that effectively neutralise these variants of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in the U.K. and India, respectively.
Trials before approval
Covaxin includes a disabled form of SARS-CoV-2 that cannot replicate but still animates the immune system to make antibodies against the virus. The results from a phase 2 trial of the vaccine show that it is safe and well-tolerated, the NIH said.
“The unpublished interim results from the phase 3 trial show that the vaccine has 78% efficacy against symptomatic disease, 100 per cent efficacy against severe COVID-19, including hospitalisation, and 70% efficacy against asymptomatic infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” it said.
“The results from two studies of blood serum from people who had received Covaxin suggest that the vaccine generates antibodies that effectively neutralise the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and B.1.617 (Delta) variants of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in the U.K. and India, respectively,” the NIH said.
