COVAXIN and COVISHIELD

COVAXIN and COVISHIELD

Subject: Science & tech

Context: The Central Drugs and Standards Committee (CDSCO) on Sunday formally approved the COVID-19 vaccines by Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India (SII).

Concept :

• This allows the vaccines — Covishield by SII and based on the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech — to be offered to healthcare workers and frontline workers in India.
• The Health Ministry had said that 3 crore such personnel, considered at the highest risk for COVID-19, would be given the vaccine for free. It isn’t yet known which vaccine will be made available to these personnel though officials said roll-outs could begin in less than a fortnight.

COVAXIN

• COVAXIN is an inactivated vaccine, created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus, that has shown promise in preclinical studies, demonstrating extensive safety and effective immune responses.
• COVAXIN has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
• The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated in NIV, Pune and transferred to Bharat Biotech. The indigenous, inactivated vaccine will be developed and manufactured by Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) High Containment facility located in Genome Valley, Hyderabad, India.
• Human clinical trials of the experimental COVID-19 are scheduled to start across the country in July 2020.
• Bharat Biotech’s track record in developing Vero cell culture platform technologies has been proven in several vaccines for polio, rabies, rotavirus, Japanese Encephalitis, Chikungunya and Zika.

COVISHIELD

• The COVISHIELD the vaccine is developed by the University of Oxford and the British Pharmaceutical major Astra Zeneca. In India, the vaccine is to be made and marketed by Pune Serum Institute of India.
• It is technically referred to as AZD1222 or ChAdOx 1 nCoV-19.
• The COVISHIELD vaccine uses harmless virus to transport genetic material in order to trigger the immune response to the COVID-19 virus.
• The COVISHIELD trials in India were conducted by the Serum Institute of India
• It is already being tested in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, where participants are being administered two doses nearly a month apart.