India’s home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been found to neutralise 617 variants of the deadly coronavirus, said America’s top pandemic expert Dr Anthony Fauci.
“This is something where we are still gaining data on a daily basis. But the most recent data, was looking at convalescent Sera of COVID-19 cases and people who received the vaccine used in India, the Covaxin. It was found to neutralise the 617 variants,” Fauci told reporters on Tuesday.
“So, despite the real difficulty that we’re seeing in India, vaccination could be a very, very important antidote against this,” he added.
The New York Times on Tuesday said that Covaxin works by teaching the immune system of the human body to make antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The antibodies attach to viral proteins, such as spike proteins that stud its surface.
Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). It was approved for emergency use on January 3, 2021. Trial results showed the vaccine has an efficacy of 78%.
Recently, the ICMR also said that Covaxin neutralises multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2.
“ICMR study shows COVAXIN neutralises against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 and effectively neutralises the double mutant strain as well,” ICMR had said.
“It is good news and hoped that there will be less anxiety among people in the second wave with this new information about the vaccine. Covaxin has been found to effectively neutralise the double mutant strain also apart from other variants of concern,” Dr Samiran Panda, chief of epidemiology and communicable diseases division of ICMR said on April 21.
(With Inputs From PTI)
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