Bharat Biotech Covaxin shows 78 percent overall interim efficacy, 100 percent efficacy against severe Covid

Hyderabad: Drugmaker, Bharat Biotech, has recently announced phase 3 interim analysis results of COVAXIN. The second interim analysis is based on accruing more than 87 symptomatic cases of COVID-19. Due to the recent surge in cases, 127 symptomatic cases were recorded, resulting in a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 78% (95%CI: 61-88) against mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 disease.

The efficacy against severe COVID-19 disease was 100% (95%CI: 60-100), with an impact on reduction in hospitalizations. The efficacy against asymptomatic COVID-19 infection was 70%, suggesting decreased transmission in COVAXIN recipients.

Safety and Efficacy results from the final analysis will be available in June, and the final report will be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication. Based on the achievement of the success criteria, placebo recipients have now become eligible to receive two doses of COVAXIN.

The Phase 3 study enrolled 25,800 participants between 18-98 years of age, including 10% over the age of 60, with analysis conducted 14 days post 2nd dose. COVAXIN was developed with seed strains received from the National Institute of Virology, and the phase 3 clinical trial was co-funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, said, "Efficacy against SARS-Cov-2 has been established. COVAXIN has demonstrated an excellent safety record in human clinical trials and in usage under emergency use. COVAXIN is now a global innovator vaccine derived from Research & Development from India. The efficacy data against severe COVID-19 and asymptomatic infections is highly significant, as this helps reduce hospitalizations and disease transmission, respectively."

The protocols for manufacturing, testing and release of inactivated vaccines have been tried, tested and validated across several of the company's vaccines; these also meet the requirements of WHO, Indian and other regulatory authorities. These protocols have delivered consistent results over a 15-year period with more than 300 million doses supplied globally, with excellent safety and performance record.