Medical journal The Lancet has published Phase 2 clinical trial results of India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine – Covaxin (codenamed BBV152) - a week after Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) announced that the vaccine has an interim efficacy of around 81%.

The research paper stated that BBV152 resulted in increased immune responses and induced T-cell responses, biased toward Th1. On account of the difference in dosing regimens between Phase 1 (two doses given 2 weeks apart) and phase 2 (two doses given at a gap of 4 weeks) trials, neutralization responses were found to be significantly higher in the phase 2 trial compared to phase 1 trial. Additionally, the proportion of people reporting adverse events was lower in the phase 2 trial in comparison with the phase 1 trial… (ET Healthworld – TNN, March 9, 2021)