Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said “it is envisaged to launch” an indigeneous vaccine for the novel coronavirus diseaes (COVID-19) by August 15, 2020.
ICMR Director-General Balram Bhargava wrote in a letter that the Council has partnered Bharat Biotech International Ltd to fast track clinical trials of the ‘BBV152 COVID vaccine’.
The two organisations were jointly working for the preclinical and clinical development of the vaccine, he said.
The vaccine is derived from a SARS-CoV-2 strain isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, according to Bhargava’s letter.
The letter was sent to the heads of the following institutes selected as clinical trial sites of the vaccine:
King George Hospital, Vishakhapatnam
University of Health Sciences, Rohtak
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi
AIIMS, Phulwarisharif
Jeevan Rekha Hospital, Belagavi
Gillurkar Multispecialty Hospital, Nagpur
Rana Hospital Pvt Ltd, Gorakhpur
SRM Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Kattankulathur (Chengalpattu district)
Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad
Gangadhar Sahoo / E Venkata Rao (of Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital), Bhubaneswar
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