ICMR Launches a Vaccine Portal for Transparency in the R&D Process

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has launched an online Vaccine Portal on Monday. The portal covers all the details relating to Coronavirus. The Health and Family Welfare Minister, Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the Vaccine Portal. 

The web portal publishes data on research development, clinical trials of the Covid-19 vaccine, its launch date, and other information relating to COVID-19 in India. The portal acts as a repository for all information related to vaccine development in India.

The portal contains details of ongoing clinical trials and details of progress made at a local and global level at regular intervals. It aims to strengthen its data by making the data available for all vaccines in India that will be used to prevent various diseases. 

The Health and Family Welfare Minister, Harsh Vardhan stated that anyone can access this portal and look up all contemporary research and development and clinical trials related information about such vaccinations. Vaccine development is watched very closely due to the havoc created by COVID-19. Thus, it is crucial to showcase the status of vaccine development in the country.

The Vaccine Portal provides details of various COVID-19 vaccines that are currently under development, details of its trials conducted on animals, the genome sequence of the virus, and multiple articles on India’s vaccine preparedness. There is an expectation of updating this portal with more data on various vaccines as they become available.

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Currently, the portal offers details of three vaccines, which are the frontrunners in India—Covaxin, Covishield, and ZyCoV-D, which along with their details of the clinical registry and their phases of clinical trials are available in the portal. 

Covaxin is COVID-19 Vaccine by Bharat Biotech, developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV). The Serum Institute of India (SII) and Indian Council of Medical Research are jointly conducting a trial of Covishield. Further, the vaccine by Zydus Cadila is ZyCov-D.

Covaxine and ZyCoV-D have completed the phase two trials. According to the information on the portal, phase two human clinical trials are ongoing for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D. The Serum Institute of India (SII) and Indian Council of Medical Research are jointly conducting a phase II/III human clinical trials for Covishield.

To track down information on vaccine supply chain and stocks across the country, India uses the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN). eVIN makes sure that there is smooth immunisation across India. In addition, eVIN provides real-time information of stocks and storage temperatures of registered vaccine storage sites across the country.

Basically, the portal ensures accessibility and transparency of COVID-19 related clinical and laboratory data. The Centre has also launched the National Clinical Registry for COVID-19, which collects data regarding laboratory features, treatments, and outcomes of the hospitalised COVID-19 patients in India. 

As we all know, the need of the hour is the vaccine for COVID-19 in order to return to our regular lives in safety. The portal draws a picture of when the vaccine might be available and how effective the vaccine can be; it also helps the general public to relieve anxiousness and uncertainty concerning the pandemic.

For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at mayashree.acharya@cleartax.in.