(Image source from: wionews.com)

While the world is consistently battling the terror of Covid-19, Bharat Biotech, a firm from India, informed that their Covid-19 vaccine development has been moving in the right direction, suggesting that the next one month is extremely crucial. The same was clarified by Dr. Krishna Mohan Ella, Chief Executive Officer of Bharat Biotech.

The company has been working collaboratively with three forces, including University of Wisconsin, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Thomas Jefferson University of Philadelphia to successfully help develop the vaccine.

"The vaccine development is moving in a positive direction. The next one month is very crucial. I am a scientist and I believe in science,” said Ella.

Following the inputs from Bharat Biotech about the development of the vaccine along with the backdrop of the statement issued by the Serum Institute of India suggesting their plans to develop over 60 million doses of the vaccine by the year end, it can be said that the development is moving along at the correct pace and will likely be done within a few months time.

Ella further reported that while he is pretty confident with the progress so far, he said that with science, things can change. If the things were not moving as positively as he claimed it was, he wouldn’t be saying it at all in the first place. He further reported that they are at a very crucial stage of the vaccine development at this point and can’t comment exactly on the number of doses and such.

As per the reports from ICMR, the human trials will likely begin within 6 months time.

"Let us go by science. I cannot comment on the beginning of the human trials. We are working very hard on the vaccine, which will benefit the people,” said Ella.

Since the global media has been keeping a hawk eye on the development of the vaccine at this point, Ella didn’t want to state figures or give exact numbers that could later come off as misleading.

The number of confirmed cases in India has been on the rise, with over 8000 confirmed cases reported consecutively for the second day, sparking sights of stress among the authorities at this point. The total confirmed cases in the country have surpassed 190,000 as of Monday.

It was reported back in May that Bharat Biotech is going to collaborate with Thomas Jefferson University for the development of the Covid-19 vaccine. They further reported that they are going to test out the inactivated rabies vector platform.

The company has been committed to the global public health and is actively working to ensure end-to-end development of the vaccine for further clinical trials before things do take a turn for the worse.

By Somapika Dutta