In a significant development, the Phase-I human clinical trials of India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate has taken off at various centres across the country with 375 volunteers slated to be enrolled for the first phase, reports Indian Express.

Developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Pune based National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the potential Covid-19 vaccine has been named ‘Covaxin’.

The successful completion of the Phase-I trial will be followed by a Phase-II trial, and both the phases will involve a total of 1,125 volunteers who will be administered the vaccine. The Phase-I trial has begun at AIIMS, Patna.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that apart from Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech, another Indian pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila has also developed a potential vaccine, ZyCoV-D, which has also begun the human clinical trials.

The development of two potential vaccines has placed India among a select group of nations which have been able to make such strides in developing a vaccine for the COVID-19 disease which has wreaked havoc across the globe.