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By Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, March 4 (Reuters) - Indian doctors and
politicians on Thursday welcomed efficacy data for a
state-backed coronavirus vaccine that was given emergency
approval in January without the completion of a late-stage
trial, making people reluctant to receive the shot.
Government data shows https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in that
only 10% of about 12.6 million people immunised in India have
taken the COVAXIN shot, which was found to be 81% effective in
an interim analysis of the late-stage trial, its developer
Bharat Biotech said on Wednesday.
Any boost to the vaccine's acceptance in India, which on
Thursday reported a new COVID-19 cases at their highest in five
weeks, could also brighten its export prospects. Bharat Biotech
said 40 countries were interested in COVAXIN.
Many Indian doctors and opposition politicians had rejected
COVAXIN because it was approved by the drug regulator only on
the basis of data from intermediate trials. The regulator has
also authorised the use of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca
vaccine, marketed as Covishield in India, which was
found to be 70.42% effective based on overseas trials.
"Now that interim Phase 3 data are available for COVAXIN, I
can safely ask my father, who is more than 60 years of age and a
diabetic, to get it," said Nirmalya Mohapatra, a leader of an
association of doctors at New Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital, having previously publicly refused to take COVAXIN.
Rajib Dasgupta, chairperson of the Centre of Social Medicine
& Community Health at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University,
said the interim results were encouraging but that a
"well-rounded picture" would emerge only after a fuller
analysis.
Opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor welcomed Bharat Biotech's
announcement.
"For those like me who were concerned that COVAXIN was being
deployed before its third phase trials were concluded, this is
good news indeed," he said on Twitter.
India reported 17,407 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours,
taking the total to 11.16 million. Deaths rose by 89 to 157,435.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Additional reporting by Philip
George in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
