India to soon have dedicated vaccine portal: ICMR

India will soon have a dedicated vaccine portal, announced the country's top medical research body - the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The ICMR is currently working to develop India’s first-ever vaccine portal that will serve as a repository for all information related to vaccine development in India. The ICMR vaccine portal will reportedly be made public by next week. 

ICMR Vaccine portal: All you need to know!

• The ICMR Vaccine portal will reflect all the information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine in the first stage. 

• Subsequently, the web portal will be strengthened by making available the data concerning all the vaccines that have been used to prevent various diseases.

• People will get all the updates for a vaccine in India under one platform. Currently, the information is scattered. Therefore, ICMR is working to develop this portal, as it is an institute of biomedical research.

• Initially, the ICMR vaccine portal will only show data for the COVID-19 vaccine. It would be later updated with the information regarding other vaccines as well.

• As per scientists, the ICMR vaccine portal will have sections including the COVID-19 vaccine, India's initiative, International Symposium and FAQ for the general public. 

• The vaccine portal will fetch information related to the COVID-19 vaccine from the World Health Organisation (WHO) as available on their website.

COVID Vaccine candidates in India

Currently, there are three COVID vaccine candidates in India and all of them are under different phases of clinical trials. 

1. COVAXIN: The first is an inactivated virus vaccine, which is being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

2. ZyCOV-D: The second vaccine is a 'DNA vaccine' by pharma giant Zydus Cadila.

3. Oxford Vaccine: The third vaccine is a 'Recombinant Oxford University vaccine', which has developed by UK's Oxford University and AstraZeneca. The vaccine candidate’s manufacturing partner is the Serum Institute of India, which received a go ahead from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine in India. 

Background

The central government has been making its best effort along with the ICMR to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in India. While all-out efforts are being put to enforce preventive measures including wearing of masks, hand hygiene and social distancing, vaccine development is a significant aspect of India’s fight against coronavirus.