New Delhi: Clearing the air around the availability of India’s first COVID-19 vaccine, Union Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that he was confident that it will be developed by the end of this year. “One of our COVID-19 vaccine candidates is in the third phase of the clinical trial. We are very confident that a vaccine will be developed by end of this year,” Harsh Vardhan said while inaugurating an NDRF 10-bedded makeshift hospital in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Also Read – India Crosses 3 Million Coronavirus Cases, Makes Record of Testing 1 Million Samples a Day

Further, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is working on creating a vaccine portal, which will be a repository for all information related to vaccine development in India. It is being said to be made public by the next week. The vaccine portal will also fetch the information related to COVID-19 vaccine from the World Health Organisation (WHO) as available on their website. Also Read – ‘Best in The World’: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan Lauds India’s COVID-19 Recovery Rate

In the first stage, the ICMR vaccine portal will reflect the information on COVID-19 vaccine in India. However, with time, the web portal will be strengthened with data available for all the vaccines used to prevent various diseases. Also Read – Nepal to Resume International Flights From September 1

“People can get all the updates on a vaccine in India under one roof. As of now, all the information is scattered. Therefore, after the directions from DG, we are working to develop this ICMR vaccine portal. Initially, the website will show data for COVID-19 vaccine. But, in future, we will update the website with information for other vaccines too as ICMR is an institute of bio-medical research,” Dr Samiran Panda, Scientist and head of the Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases (ECD) Division of the medical body, said.

“The Central government along with the ICMR is making all best efforts to combat coronavirus pandemic. Wearing masks, hand-hygiene and social distancing are preventive measures but at the same time vaccine development is another important aspect which will be updated on the ICMR vaccine portal,” said Dr Panda.

It may be noted that three COVID vaccine candidates are in India which are in different phases of the clinical study.

The first is–inactivated virus vaccine, which is the “Bharat Biotech Vaccine”, being developed in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Similarly, the second is a “DNA vaccine” of pharma giant called Zydus Cadila.

The third is a “Recombinant Oxford University vaccine”, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), that got approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct phase 2 and phase 3 clinical study in the country.