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The Indian Academy of Sciences has lashed out at the Indian Council of Medical Research for claiming that an indigenous vaccine against the novel coronavirus would be launched by August 15, following completion of clinical trials. IASc’s statement came after ICMR and Bharat Biotech India Limited, a private pharmaceutical company, said that they had “envisaged to launch COVAXIN for public health use latest by August 15, 2020 after completion of all clinical trials”.Calling the setting of such timelines ‘unfeasible’, the IASc stressed that “vaccine development for use in humans requires scientifically executed clinical trials in a phased manner.” The institute added that clinical trials of a vaccine candidate requires participation of healthy human volunteers and, therefore, “many ethical and regulatory approvals need to be obtained prior to the initiation of the trials.”The top science institute said that this timeline has “raised unrealistic hope and expectations in the minds of our citizens”. Earlier, congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday called the Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) claim to launch COVID-19 vaccine by August 15, an "unscientific gaffe".What is COVAXIN?Covaxin is India's first vaccine candidate to have gone into human clinical trials. Bharat Biotech, the Hyderabad-based vaccine major, announced this week that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for phase I and II human clinical trials.How is the vaccine derived?The vaccine is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and BBIL are jointly working for the pre-clinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine.When does ICMR aim to launch it?Aiming to make it available for public use by August 15, BBIL’s application with the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) shows it plans to complete enrollment of trial participants by July 13.Is it possible to get the vaccine by August 15?A vaccine usually goes through three phases of human trials. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has given approvals for phase I and II trials so far. According to details from CTRI, BBIL in its application estimated phase I and II trials to take a year and three months, including at least a month for phase I alone.How many institutes have been setup for clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccine?The ICMR has selected 12 institutes, including one from Odisha, for clinical trial of the country's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. Bhubaneswar-based Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital under the SOA Deemed to be University, has been chosen by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for undertaking human clinical trials of India's first coronavirus vaccine, an official of the institute said. Apart from IMS and SUM Hospital here, the other institutes selected for the clinical trial are located in Visakhapatnam, Rohtak, New Delhi, Patna, Belgaum (Karnataka), Nagpur, Gorakhpur, Kattankulathur (Tamil Nadu), Hyderabad, Arya Nagar, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Goa.What is the current status of COVID-19 in IndiaIndia surpassed a sad milestone of going past Russia to become the third worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic. According to Worldometer United States and Brazil occupy the first and second spot in terms of total Covid-19 infections. India has a total of 6,97,069 coronavirus cases, while the virus-related fatalities have reached 19,699, as per the latest data by the Worldometer. Russia meanwhile, has 6,81,251 infections, Brazil (15,78,376 cases) and US (29,54,999 cases).

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