Covaxin was found to be 77.8% effective against Covid in a Lancet study

Covaxin was found to be 77.8% effective against Covid in a Lancet study.

No vaccine-related deaths or serious adverse events were recorded during a randomized trial.

Covaxin, a vaccine developed by the government medical research agency and Bharat Biotech International Ltd., was found to have a 77.8% efficacy rate against symptomatic Covid-19 in a long-awaited analysis published in The Lancet.

Covaxin, which uses traditional inactivated virus technology, “induces a robust antibody response” two weeks after two doses are administered, The Lancet said in a statement.

No serious vaccine-related deaths or adverse events were recorded during a randomized trial involving 24,419 participants aged 18 to 97 between November 2020 and May 2021 in India, the medical journal said.

The interim study, which was funded by Bharat Biotech and the Medical Research Council of India and written in part by officials from both agencies, is in line with the company’s previous efficacy and safety announcements and may help end the controversy surrounding the advance authorization of the injection in January in India.

A member of the public receives a dose of the Covid-19 Covaxin vaccine at a vaccination center set up at a Delhi government health dispensary in New Delhi.

At the time, the vaccine had yet to pass end-stage testing, prompting widespread hesitation in the first weeks of the immunization campaign. Since then, more than 100 million doses of Covaxin have been deployed across India and last week the World Health Organization added the inoculation to its list of Covid vaccines authorized for emergency use.

However, in the course of its analysis, the WHO’s independent technical body studying the vaccine repeatedly asked the company for more information, delaying its inclusion on the agency’s prequalified list and causing frustration in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. , who had defended local politics. shot developed.

Bharat Biotech president Krishna Ella had previously criticized those who questioned Covaxin and this week told a conference that the WHO approval took so long due to criticism of the vaccine that it damaged his image.

More research will be needed to discover the vaccine’s long-term safety and efficacy, as well as protection against serious illness, hospitalization, and death, along with its ability to fend off the delta and other worrisome variants, according to The Lancet.