Indian firm Cadila will complete trail of coronavirus vaccine by March

New Delhi: India’s Zydus Cadila plans to complete late-stage trials for its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate by February or March and could produce up to 100 million doses a year initially if it is successful, the company chairman said Friday.

ZyCoV-D, the plasmid DNA vaccine designed & developed by @ZydusUniverse & partially funded by @DBTIndia has initiated Phase I/ II clinical trials in healthy subjects, making it the first indigenously developed vaccine for #COVID19 to be administered in humans in India.@IndiaDST pic.twitter.com/NVykagVMiU

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) July 16, 2020

Cadila’s vaccine candidate, known as ZyCov-D, is one of dozens being developed around the world to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Early-stage Phase 1 and 2 human trials are likely to be concluded in the next three months, said company official.

Cadila, among India’s top 10 drugmakers by revenue, is also planning to produce the drug remdesivir that is in high demand globally after it showed promise in treating severe patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Cadila was among several Indian firms that reached an agreement with the U.S. firm Gilead Sciences last month, gaining a license for developing countries, including India, to make and sell the drug.

According to Cadila they had the capacity to produce up to 400,000 doses of remdesivir in the first month after it wins regulatory approval to make it in India.