Vaccine produces immune response - AstraZeneca

He said healthcare workers will likely be prioritised first for any vaccine, as well as people considered at increased risk of complications.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in a statement that it had formed a screening team to review the vaccine candidate, with an application for formal approval expected in 90 days under its rapid approval programme for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.

Asked if some people could receive a vaccine this year, he told the BBC: "I don't rule that out but that is not my central expectation". From the efforts and discussions in the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of the Union government, Paul said the vaccine scenario is dynamic and the approach is being fine-tuned and blueprints and preparations are being made and "in order to deliver the vaccine to priority groups, to the extent that we can foresee, there is absolutely no problem in terms of resources".

Read also: Stages of COVID-19 vaccine development: Where do we stand?

Work began on the Oxford vaccine in January.

The chimpanzee cold virus has been genetically changed to include the genetic sequence of the so-called spike protein the coronavirus uses to gain entry to human cells.

Bloomberg reports that blood tests taken from a subset of older participants who had received the vaccine showed that it generated a robust immune response. Details of the results are expected to be published in a clinical journal, the FT said. It did not name the publication.

The company released similar results back in July, but for healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55.

  Giving an update on the three COVID-19 vaccine candidates which are presently in different stages of clinical trials in India, ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has got approval for phase III trials and will start the trials soon while Cadila is also progressing with phase-II trials.

The candidate drug is now undergoing a much larger Phase III trial across several countries to try and establish how well it protects against coronavirus in a real-world setting.

The vaccine, which utilizes plasmid DNA, is now in phase 2 trials and expects to enroll 30,000 patients in a pivotal study by December, a company official told Bloomberg.

Wilder-Smith said there is a possibility that several vaccines could be rolled out simultaneously.

The vaccine most waited for the people across the globe is in news for two unfortunate incidents.