India’s top medical research body, the Indian Council of Medical Research is scheduled to roll out a comprehensive portal on the various developments on the coronavirus vaccine. The website will be launched and made available for public access next week.
The first stage will contain information about the coronavirus vaccine in India and will eventually become a repository for all the vaccines that can be used to prevent the infection of various diseases.
"People can get all the updates on a vaccine in India under one roof. As of now, all the information is scattered. Therefore, after the directions from DG, we are working to develop this ICMR vaccine portal. Initially, the website will show data for Covid-19 vaccine. But, in future, we will update the website with information for other vaccines too as ICMR is an institute of biomedical research," said Dr Samiran Panda, Scientist and Head of the Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases (ECD) Division of the medical body, according to an ANI report.
Dr Panda also added, "The Central government along with the ICMR is making all best efforts to combat coronavirus pandemic. Wearing masks, hand-hygiene and social distancing are preventive measures but at the same time vaccine development is another important aspect which will be updated on the ICMR vaccine portal."
At present, the country has three coronavirus vaccines, all in different trial stages.
The first is being developed by Hyderabad-based Biotech International Limited in collaboration with the ICMR and is known as ‘Covaxin’. The second vaccine is Serum Institute’s ‘Covishield’ that has got approval by the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) to conduct Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical study in the country.
The trial among 1,600 volunteers across 17 centres, started on August 22, and the vaccine may be launched by the first week of December. The last is a ‘DNA vaccine’ by pharma giant Zydus Cadila. The vaccine uses plasmid DNA and was found to be safe and well-tolerated in Phase I, which began on July 15, the pharma company said.
The vaccine portal will also include multiple sections such as Covid-19 vaccine, India’s initiatives with respect to coronavirus, International Symposiums and FAQ for the general public (available in regional languages).