Department of Health Research, ICMR
A commemorative postage stamp on the Journey of Development of India’s First Home-Grown Covid-19 Vaccine : COVAXIN :
Issued by India
Issued on Jan 16, 2022
Issued for : Department of Posts is pleased to issue a Commemorative Postage Stamp on COVAXIN which is a heart-felt tribute to the healthcare workers, Indian Academia and Industry..
Credits :
Stamps/FDC/Brochure/Cancellation Cachet : Shri Brahm Prakash
Type : Stamp, Mint Condition
Colour : Multi Colour
Denomination : 500 Paise
Stamps Printed : 301920
Printing Process : Wet Offset
Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad
About :
- COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. Since then, the disease has caused significant morbidity and mortality across the World. Development of safe and effective vaccine was identified as the most promising tool to help mount a protective immune response to reduce disease’s severity and curtail transmission. Accordingly, intense global efforts were mounted to develop COVID-19 vaccines.
- India joined the global pursuit of developing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines since inception of the pandemic. The story of development of India’s home-grown vaccine, COVAXIN started in April 2020 following successful isolation of the first SARS-CoV-2 virus strain at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. From here ICMR and Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL), an indigenous Hyderabad based company, embarked upon one of the most successful public private partnership to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine.
- Based on results of the preclinical animal studies, two formulations of the vaccine appeared promising (i) 3ug with alum adjuvant + TLR7/8 agonist and (ii) 6ug with alum adjuvant + TLR7/8 agonist. The two formulations were further tested in human clinical trials. The clinical trials in humans consist of mainly three phases: Phase 1, aimed to determine the safety, phase 2 determined the immune response and phase 3 was for efficacy, which is the ability of a vaccine to reduce disease burden in vaccinated people, under trial conditions.
- In the largest COVID-19, phase 3 clinical trial conducted across 25 sites in India on 25,800 individuals, an efficacy of 77.8% against symptomatic COVID-19 was reported for COVAXIN, along with a good safety and immunogenicity profile. In the backdrop of emergence of variant strains of SARS-CoV-2, studies were undertaken by ICMR-NIV to understand the effectiveness of COVAXIN against variant strains of SARS-CoV-2 like alpha, beta, kappa, zeta, delta and its sublineages.
- Research studies were undertaken by ICMR and BBIL with extreme scientific rigor while following high ethical standards. The high-quality work conducted under this collaboration emanated into a series of seventeen research publications in high impact factor; peer reviewed and internationally renowned journals. This itself speaks high about the strong position of COVAXIN amongst other global front-runner COVID-19 vaccines.
- On 3rd November 2021, COVAXIN has been included as the eighth vaccine globally to receive the WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL), after fulfilling the intense review and scrutiny of scientific data and manufacturing processes. Today, as the country is celebrating 75 years of independence, India stands tall in the global community where more than 1.1 billion citizens have been vaccinated for COVID-19.
- The bench to bedside journey of COVAXIN in less than 10 months’ time, showcases the immense strength of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” along with the strong will of Indian Academia and Industry in fighting against the odds and carving a niche in the global community. India’s first desi vaccine “COVAXIN”, is a landmark achievement portraying self-reliance of India. In this context, it is an honour for the Indian Council of Medical Research, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, to highlight this path-breaking contribution of India to add to the arsenal in the global crusade against the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Text : Referenced from contents provided by Indian Council of Medical Research.
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