No compromise on regulatory norms for Covid vaaccine: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi : Allaying the fear of the public, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday emphasised that no compromise has been made on scientific and regulatory norms related to the Covid-19 vaccine.The Minister’s assertion holds importance at a time questions are being raised on both the safety and efficacy of the vaccines which are being developed at a phenomenal rate at a time the world is struggling to find a silver bullet to end its pandemic woes.”With stringent oversight, we are sure that there is no compromise on scientific and regulatory norms, stretching from safety of the trials to the efficacy of the vaccine,” said Harsh Vardhan, while addressing the World Bank’s high-level inter-ministerial meet on vaccination.He, however, assured that vaccine will be available in the coming few weeks and the vaccination process will kick-start as soon as it is approved by the regulatory agency concerned, the Drugs Controller General of India.As many as eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates are under different stages of clinical trials and could be ready for authorisation in near future, including three indigenous vaccines.These include Astrazeneca and Oxford University developed and Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield, Covaxin by Bharat Biotech Ltd, ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila, Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik-V, NVX-CoV2373 by the SII, HGCO19 by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, and two unlabelled vaccines – Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine by Biological E Ltd -and Inactivated rabies vector platform by Bharat Biotech.