Lancet booster for Covaxin; Study says Indian vaccine is 77.8% effective

Covaxin has finally got the long awaited verdict from medical journal The Lancet that found that Bharat Biotech developed vaccine has a 77.8% efficacy rate against symptomatic Covid.

Covaxin, which uses traditional, inactivated-virus technology, “induces a robust antibody response” two weeks after two doses are given, The Lancet said in a statement. No severe-vaccine-related deaths or adverse events were recorded during a randomized trial involving 24,419 participants aged 18-97 years between Nov. 2020 and May 2021 in India, the medical journal said.

Also watch: WHO approves Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for emergency use

There are however limitations the study cited. The authors of the Covaxin study have noted that the data is preliminary, and more research with a larger sample size is needed.

Still this comes as a big booster to Bharat Biotech who recently received the nod from WHO for emergency use listing (EUL) for the jab, which enables those vaccinated with it to be eligible for travel to international destinations such as UK and US.