Covid-19 vaccine unlikely before 2021, House panel told

NEW DELHI: A global or Indian vaccine for coronavirus will only be ready by 2021, a parliamentary standing committee on science, technology, environment and forests was told on Friday at its first in-person meeting since the countrywide lockdown was announced in March.

The assertion by officials came on the heels of a controversy over an ICMR letter last week that spoke of an August 15 deadline for launch of a vaccine for public health use. The premier agency, however, later clarified that the letter was only meant to “cut unnecessary red tape” and “speed up recruitment of participants”, and not to “bypass any necessary process”.

Though no direct reference was made to the ICMR letter at Friday’s parliamentary panel meeting, principal scientific advisor to the government, K Vijay Raghavan and senior officials of the department of biotechnology (DBT), department of science and technology (DST) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) briefed the committee and assured that India will “either lead in finding a Covid-19 vaccine or in manufacturing it”, since almost 60% of the world’s vaccines are developed in India.