NEW DELHI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- An Indian vaccine maker - Bharat Biotech that is developing COVID-19 vaccine namely Covaxin said animal trials were successful.
"To summarize, the vaccine candidate was found to generate robust immune responses. Thus, preventing infection and disease in the primates upon high amounts of exposure to live SARS-CoV-2 virus," the Telangana based pharma company said.
The company took to social media saying it proudly announces the animal study results of Covaxin.
"These results demonstrate the protective efficacy in a live viral challenge model," it wrote on twitter.
According to Bharat Biotech, it had tested its vaccine candidate on four groups of 20 rhesus macaques. The primates were administered a "two-dose vaccination regimen of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine".
"One group was administered with placebo, while three groups were immunized with three different vaccine candidates at 0 and 14 days. All the macaques were exposed to viral challenge 14 days after the 2nd dose," the vaccine-maker said. "The results showed protective efficacy, increasing SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and neutralising antibodies," the company said, adding that it reduced the replication of the virus in the nasal cavity, throat, and lung tissues of the monkeys.
The company further said no evidence of pneumonia was observed by histopathological examination in vaccinated groups, unlike the placebo group.
"Adverse events were not seen in animals immunized with a two-dose vaccination regimen," it further said.
Covaxin is among the runners in the race to find a vaccine for COVID-19.
Human trials for Covaxin kicked off in mid-July. In the first week of September, the vaccine-maker received the drug regulator's clearance to move Covaxin to the second phase of human testing.
India is the second worst-hit country by the pandemic in the world.
On Saturday the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 4,659,984 including 77,472 deaths. During the past 24 hours, 97,570 new COVID-19 cases and 1,201 related deaths were recorded in the country. Enditem
