New Delhi

Covaxin - vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech - is effective against UK variants of COVID-19, according to a study on 26 participants, shared by the company on Wednesday.

The findings are in an article - Neutralization of UK-variant VUI-202012/01 with Covaxin vaccinated human serum - on the website of bioRxiv, which said these are preliminary reports that have not been peer-reviewed.

"A comparable neutralization activity of sera of the vaccinated individuals showed against UK-variant and the heterologous strain with similar efficiency, dispel the uncertainty of possible neutralization escape," the article said.

Covaxin has been accorded approval for restricted emergency use in the country by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on January 3.

While giving the approval for Covaxin, DCGI V G Somani had said, "Bharat Biotech has developed a Whole Virion Inactivated Coronavirus Vaccine (Covaxin) in collaboration with ICMR and NIV (Pune), from where they received the virus seed strains. This vaccine is developed on the Vero cell platform, which has a well-established track record of safety and efficacy in the country & globally".

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