The Drugs Control General of India has approved the urgent use of the Covid Sputnik V vaccine in some cases, clearing the way for a third vaccine over Covishield and Covaxin. Apart from that, the government on Tuesday again expedited the immediate approval of some jabs. Here are the details of the vaccines:
COVAXIN
Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, using an inactivated virus. It is further enhanced by chemical treatment of coronavirus samples to enable them to reproduce. Given as two doses four weeks apart, therapeutic can be stored between 2-8 degrees Celsius. Preliminary data from its phase 3 trial show that the vaccine has an 81% efficacy rate.
COVISHIELD
Covishield is a joint drug developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. The vaccine uses a viral vector, a modification made by adenoviruses that infect chimpanzees to carry the gene responsible for the spike protein of novel coronavirus. It requires two doses given four weeks apart, to produce the results you want. The vaccine is 70% effective after the first dose. Global clinical trials have shown that when people are given half the dose and then the full dose, efficiency hit up to 90 percent. It can also be stored safely at 2-8 degrees Celsius.
SPUTNIK V
Sputnik V from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute is the latest vaccine approved for emergency use in India. Sputnik V uses a cold-type virus vector. It is designed to be safe, as a carrier to deliver a small piece of coronavirus to the body. Exposing the body safely in the genetic code of the virus, in this way allows it to detect the threat and learn to fight it off, without the risk of illness. Sputnik V has been shown to have 92 percent efficacy. It is offered in two doses, three weeks apart. It can be stored at temperatures between 2-8 degrees Celsius.
Possibly in the Pipeline:
MODERNA
The mRNA vaccine by the US-based company Moderna has been shown to be 94.1 percent effective. In this type of vaccine, messenger RNA – or mRNA – acts as a system for producing the coronavirus spike protein. Vaccine receptor cells use this part of mRNA to produce viral proteins to train the immune system for future contact with an infectious coronavirus. Administered as two doses 28 days apart, the Moderna vaccine can be refrigerated at 2-8 degrees Celsius for 30 days. At 20 degrees Celsius it can be stored for up to six months.
PFIZER-BIONTECH
The US-based COVID-19 defense-based Pfizer-Biontech, a Moderna vaccine, is based on genetic components of the novel coronavirus. Preliminary data from clinical trials showed that two doses of a vaccine given three weeks apart, offers 94 percent efficacy. One limitation of Pfizer vaccination has been its need for ultracold storage – up to 70 degrees Celsius.
JOHNSON &JOHNSON
The adenovirus vectored vaccine by an American company is given as a single dose. The company has noted that the therapeutic can be stored for up to three months in the refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius, up to two years after freezing at 20 degrees Celsius. The overall effectiveness of the J&J vaccine was found to be 66 percent worldwide, and 72 percent in the US.
