National Institute of Health, United States, said that Covaxin is able to neutralise the variants of SARS-CoV-2 very effectively. The vaccine indigenously developed by Bharat Bio-Tech is very effective against the Alpha and Delta variants.

NIH said that results of 2 studies conducted on blood serum of people who received Covaxin show that the vaccine is able to generate antibodies that neutralise the SARS-CoV-2 variants Alpha and Delta first identified in UK and India respectively.

NIH also said that the results indicate that Covaxin is safe and well-tolerated and that it has 78% efficacy against symptomatic disease, 100% efficacy against severe Covid-19 including hospitalization, and 70% efficacy against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

NIH added that Alhydroxiquim-II, the novel adjutant that was used to boost the immune response of Covaxin was developed with funding from NIH. Adjutants are substances which are used to boost immune responses and enhance a vaccine’s effectiveness.

(news source:toi)