MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2020) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid a visit to the Bharat Biotech manufacturing facility, which has developed India's COVAXIN coronavirus vaccine and is underway with phase 3 clinical trials, Bharat Biotech said in a press release on Saturday.
Phase 3 clinical trials of COVAXIN began on Thursday, involving 26,000 volunteer participants across 25 sites in India.
"The prime minister's visit serves as a great inspiration to our team, and further reinforces our commitment towards scientific discovery, solving public health issues, and the nation's fight against COVID-19," the press release read.
The facility belongs to India's high-tech innovation nest called the Genome Valley, located in the southern city of Hyderabad.
Stressing that COVAXIN was underway with the "first, largest, and the ONLY efficacy trial in the developing world," Bharat Biotech also emphasized that the production would be carried out at a Biosafety Level 3 facility, which indicates the second highest level of precautions provided for all parties to the process.
India is underway with clinical trials of three coronavirus vaccines at the moment, with COVAXIN being the only one in phase 3. The ZycovD vaccine by pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila and the ChAdOx1 vaccine by the Serum Institute of India are underway with phase 2 clinical trials.
India is the pandemic's second-worst-hit country behind the United States. As of Saturday, India's cumulative toll surpassed 9.3 million COVID-19 cases, including 136,200 deaths.
