India to get fourth Covid jab from Biological E by August

Bilogical E has completed Phase-1 and -II trials, would submit the data in a few days and enter Phase-III trials, he said.

The country will have its fourth Covid-19 vaccine by August. After Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and the Sputnik vaccine, Hyderabad-based Biological E is getting ready to launch its vaccine in India. V K Paul, member – health, Niti Aayog, said on Wednesday Biological E’s own vaccine candidate could be ready by August.

This is a significant development as Biological E has the capacity to make 6 crore shots, which it can earmark for manufacturing the Covid vaccine, Paul said. Bilogical E has completed Phase-1 and -II trials, would submit the data in a few days and enter Phase-III trials, he said.

Biological E is a pharma and vaccine company and has set a target to make 1 billion doses by the end of 2022. It has tied up with US-based biopharma company Dynavax Technologies and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, for the vaccine. The vaccine candidate is licensed from Baylor College’s commercialisation team, BCM Ventures, and adjuvants is from Dynavax.

After refinement of the vaccine policy, Paul said they were looking at expediting talks with foreign vaccine makers as regulations had become more liberal. Renewed efforts were being made and they were talking to major vaccine suppliers from other countries actively.