Zydus Cadila gears up for Phase 3 trials, plans vaccine launch by March 2021

Zydus Cadila expects to launch its COVID-19 vaccine by March next year, after applying for Phase 3 clinical trials of its vaccine candidate in December this year.

As of now, Zydus has conducted phase-2 trials on 1,000 participants, the results of which will be submitted next week and will "ascertain the safety, dose and efficacy of the potential vaccine," revealed a source to The Economic Times. The initial test results have shown that the vaccine named ZyCov-D displays no safety concerns and that "the indications are safe and the trial is under control," as commented by the source, requesting anonymity.  

For its phase 3 trials, the Ahmedabad-based company aims to have 39,000 people are participants. "If all goes well, the company expects to introduce the vaccine by March next year," added the source.

Also read: COVID-19 vaccine: RDIF, Hetero agree to produce Sputnik V in India

In addition, Chairman of Zydus Cadila Pankaj R Patel also said Zydus "could be looking at manufacturing 100 million doses to begin with, once the vaccine receives all regulatory permissions."

Other vaccine candidates like those made by Pfizer in collaboration with BioNtech; the one being helmed by Serum Institute of India under Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna's vaccine, as well as Russia's Sputnik V have also displayed strong average efficacy rates. While Sputnik V and Pfizer's candidates have reported efficacies of 95%, Moderna claimed its efficacy to be at 94.5%. On the other hand, the University of Oxford has claimed that on average, their candidate Covishield saw 70% efficacy.

Also read: Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer to set up new plants for COVID-19-like diseases