ICMR Vaccine Portal to be Made Public by Next Week (File)
New Delhi:
In a first in India, the country’s leading medical research organization is working on the creation of a Vaccine Portal of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), as a repository for all information related to vaccine development in India. India. The ICMR vaccine portal will be made public next week.
As a first step, the ICMR vaccine portal will reflect information about the COVID-19 vaccine in India. However, over time, the web portal will be strengthened with data available for all vaccines used to prevent various diseases.
“People can get all the updates on a vaccine in India under one roof. From now on, all information is scattered. Therefore, following the instructions from the DG, we are working to develop this ICMR vaccine portal. Initially, the website will display data for the COVID-19 vaccine. But, in the future, we will update the website with information on other vaccines, as ICMR is a biomedical research institute, “Dr Samiran Panda, Scientist and Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases (ECD) Division of the medical profession, said.
“The central government, along with the ICMR, is doing its best to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Wearing masks, hand hygiene and social distancing are preventive measures but at the same time vaccine development is another important aspect that will be updated on the ICMR vaccine portal ”, said the Dr Panda.
The scientist added that the ICMR vaccine portal will be made public by next week.
It can be noted that three COVID vaccine candidates are in India and are in different phases of the clinical study.
The first is the inactivated virus vaccine, which is the ‘Bharat Biotech vaccine’, which is being developed in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
Likewise, the second is a “DNA vaccine” from the pharmaceutical giant called Zydus Cadila.
The third is a ‘Oxford University Recombinant Vaccine’, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), which has obtained approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct a phase 2 clinical study and phase 3 in the country.
According to the scientist, the ICMR vaccine portal will feature sections such as the COVID-19 vaccine, the India initiative, an international symposium and a FAQ for the general public (which would be presented in the regional language) .
The vaccine portal will also retrieve information related to the COVID-19 vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO), available on their website.
