Bharat Biotech said in a statement that the Covaxin vaccine is 81 percent effective in stopping Covid-19 after the third round of clinical trials. The statement said that covaxin demonstrated an 81 percent interim efficacy in preventing Covid-19 without prior infection after the second dose.
What is the meaning of this data and how does it stack up against another vaccine option in India:
The efficacy is calculated as a percentage and measures how much protection the vaccine provides against the virus, compared to the condition in which they were not vaccinated. Efficacy is calculated on parameters such as the ability of the pill to show mild to severe symptoms to prevent you from being fully infected with the disease even if you are infected.
In the case of Covid-19 vaccines, pharma companies have primarily focused on reducing the number of symptomatic cases.
In the case of Covaxin, data from 25,800 participants received a vaccine or placebo at a ratio of 1: 1, which showed that the vaccine candidate was well tolerated.
The first interim analysis is based on 43 cases, of which 36 cases of Covid-19 were seen in the placebo group versus 7 cases, with 7 cases seen in the Covaxin group, resulting in a point estimate of 80.6 percent vaccine efficacy. went.
On the other hand, Covidil has an average of 70.4 percent efficacy in stopping Covid-19, according to an interim analysis of UKD and its late-stage clinical trials conducted in Brazil.
In Brazil, two full doses of the vaccine were given a month apart, involving 8,895 participants, and the vaccine appeared to be 62 percent effective.
Covaxin is based on an inactive whole SARS-CoV-2 virus, an older platform that is also used to produce polio vaccines. Under this method, the disease-producing potential of a virus is inactivated.
Covaxin remains to be tested at this strain. However, in principle, inactivated vaccines, such as covaxin, provide extensive protection against mutant variants.
Covaxin is stable at 2 to 8 ° C (refrigerator temperature) and sent into a ready-to-use liquid formulation that allows delivery using the existing vaccine supply chain.
On 3 January, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved Covaxin for emergency use ‘under clinical trial mode’.