India: Minister Says COVID-19 Vaccine To Be Ready By Early 2021

Indian Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday that India would have a vaccine against the coronavirus disease by early next year.

“We are expecting that our country will have COVID vaccine by the early next year,” Vardhan said in a statement to the Parliament.

The health official added that India was developing its own vaccine.

“India is also making effective efforts for vaccines just like other countries.

“In India, among the candidate vaccines, three have reached phase one, phase two and phase three stages.

“An expert group under the guidance of Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is looking at it and we have advanced planning in place,” Vardhan noted.

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Indian pharmaceutical companies — Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E — are among the domestic firms developing the COVID-19 vaccine. Some of them have already entered the phase 3 trials.

The South Asian nation is also expected to receive 100 million doses of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V by the end of the year.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund confirmed on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement on vaccine supply with India’s Dr. Reddy’s.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States, having a total of over 5.12 million cases.