Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma has said it is expecting its proposed vaccine candidate for COVID-19 to undergo Phase I and II trials by the end of 2020. The Phase III trials may be undertaken during March-April next year. MD of Aurobindo Pharma, Narayanan Govindarajan gave this information in the recently held earnings call with analysts.
Govindarajan said the vaccine for COVID-19 is being developed by Profectus BioSciences Inc in US. The US company was acquired by Aurobindo Pharma’s subsidiary Auro Vaccines LLC.
According to Govindarajan, the company’s viral vaccine manufacturing capacity in India would be undertaken in two phases. The first phase would be ready by October and the commercial facility by March, next year.
“So on the VSV platform, they (Auro Vaccines) are already developing a COVID-19 vaccine and we are creating the capacity in India in two phases. The first set of capacity would be ready by October, where we would like to make the product and start the Phase-I and Phase-II trials by the end of the year,” said Govindarajan.
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“And our commercial facility, we are aiming to get it ready by around March-April timeline where we would like to make the product for even the Phase III trials. That is the timeline for the COVID-19 vaccine based on our current assumptions,” Govindarajan added.
Aurobindo Pharma is working on developing several viral vaccines including one for COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccine candidate was approved for funding by the Department of BioTechnology, the company said in its annual report.