India’s Bharat Biotech Claims 81% Interim Efficacy for Its COVID-19 Vaccine

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began settling down, there have been new vaccines springing up from time to time. Each with their own unique names and how they work. 

Oh and also they’re constantly being compared against one another.

Phizer, Moderna, Astra-Zeneca, the list goes on. It’s almost as if these vaccines are some sort of rare Pokemon.

India’s Bharat Biotech Claims 81% Interim Efficacy for Its COVID-19 Vaccine

Pokemon aside, there’s a new vaccine on the block- Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

This vaccine is produced by an Indian biotech firm and was launched in India in late January.

Earlier in the year, the vaccine had no late-stage efficacy data. Many citizens questioned the efficacy of the vaccine as late-stage trials had not yet concluded.

However, the vaccine was still administered due to the “emergency situation”.

Now, Bharat Biotech claims that there is an 81% efficacy in late-stage clinical trials. The interim analysis consisted of 25,800 participants, including 43 recorded cases of COVID-19.

In the trial, 36 out of 43 participants were observed in the placebo group. The other 7 cases got a COVID-19 shot.

Still don’t trust it? The vaccine was administered to Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Monday, earlier in the week. 

India is still undergoing vaccination drives, providing Covaxin and a vaccine jointly developed by Oxford and Astra-Zeneca.

Apart from the two vaccines, two more are undergoing trials and awaiting approval in India- Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Russia’s Sputnik V .

Get Vaccinated in Singapore

To date, the Health Sciences Authority has approved two different vaccines for use in the country.

They are the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine and the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. Based on phase 3 trial data, the two vaccines have efficacies of around 95% after completing the vaccine regimen. 

As the vaccines arrive in Singapore in multiple batches over the following months, vaccinations start with the more vulnerable groups first.

Hence, Singapore is starting with vaccinating healthcare and frontline workers, and groups that are at risk of severe disease from the virus, such as the elderly. 

Some individuals might want to get vaccinated first for personal reasons or if they are travelling, the government is still giving priority to vulnerable groups due to the limited number of vaccines available.

COVID-19 infections pose the risk of causing life-threatening and severe symptoms or even death. Getting vaccinated keeps you and and vulnerable groups in society safe.

We should all do our part in getting the vaccine when the opportunity arises to reduce transmissions, prevent COVID-19 and most importantly keeping Singapore safe.

Feature Image: angellodeco / Shutterstock.com