An official from the Hyderabad-based company BharatBiotech has said that its COVID vaccine will be at least 60% effective based on earlier trial results, reported The India Today on Sunday, 22 November.

COVAXIN, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV).

However, some caution must be observed here.

So essentially, there is absolutely no publicly available data regarding COVAXIN’s efficacy or safety. Bharat Biotech is yet to even share the phase 3 trial’s design.

NITI Aayog member VK Paul, member of the Centre’s expert group on vaccines, told News18 that the data from the earlier trials would be available after completion of phase 3 trials.

India on Monday, 23 November, reported 44,059 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the country to 91,39,866. The death toll increased by 511 to 1,33,738.

Indian officials have said they expect to rely on Covaxin and four other locally-tested candidates to control COVID-19, as they do not expect early access to sufficient quantities of those developed by Pfizer and Moderna, reported Reuters.

Earlier this month, US drug manufacturer Pfizer said that its vaccine showed 95 percent efficacy in phase three trials, followed by an announcement by the biotechnology company Moderna, saying its vaccine candidate is 94.5 percent effective in phase three trials.

These are based on interim results and the efficacy may come down as the trials are concluded and more people are analysed. Speaking about the Pfizer vaccine, Dr Shahid Jameel, Virologist and Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, had told FIT,

“These early results are extremely encouraging and positive, but let’s wait for the final data to come out,” he said.