Kiran Mazumdar Shaw chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited said she is hopeful of a vaccine being available in the country by June, but laid emphasis on the fact that delivering the vaccine to people across the country will be challenging.
While speaking to media Kiran said, “My expectation is that the first mRNA vaccines will be approved by the end of the year.
But they are not going to be available in India because they require a -80 degree cold chain and that is not something which we can handle here”.
“I expect that by January, some of the other vaccines could be approved like AstraZeneca’s, or one of our own Indian vaccines, like the one by Bharat Biotech.
If we finish the clinical trials in the next 2-3 months, even those may be approved by January-February.
So, I would expect that in Q1 2021-22 we should have vaccines available in India,” added Kiran .
Biocon’s net profit earning in the September quarter announced on Friday slumped to Rs 169 crore from Rs 216 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Meanwhile, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given its nod to Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the third phase clinical trial of Covaxin, the coronavirus vaccine.
Besides, Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila Ltd is also in Phase 2 of human clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Pune-based Serum Institute of India in collaboration with AstraZeneca is also conducting Phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
