India’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine likely to be rolled out by April

Data from human trials likely to be presented for evaluation by end February.

Data from human trials of India’s first homegrown mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are likely to be presented to authorities for evaluation by the end of the month, and company officials are aiming to roll out the product before April, two senior scientists connected to the Department of Biotechnology told The Hindu.

The mRNA vaccine being developed by Pune-based to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine in healthy subjects. Around 4,000 volunteers have been recruited for the trial.

India has so far approved at least six vaccines that can be manufactured locally but only two — Covishield and Covaxin —have been administered to over 99% Indians. Globally, mRNA vaccines have been at the vanguard of inoculation programmes in the United States and Europe because they exploit recent advances in molecular biotechnology and are said to be quicker to manufacture than older, well-established vaccine design principles.