Zydus Cadila looks to complete clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in 7 months

Drug firm Zydus Cadila is looking to complete clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D in seven months, the company's chairman said on Friday.

The company had on Wednesday started clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate with the first human dosing.

The firm is looking to complete phase I and phase II clinical trials in the next three months and submit the data to the regulator, Zydus Cadila Chairman Pankaj R Patel said in a statement.

Depending on the study outcomes and if the data is encouraging and the vaccine is found to be effective during the trials, it could take a total of seven months for the trials to be completed and for the vaccine to be launched, he added.

The aim would be to cater to the India market first, Patel said.

"The company is open to exploring partnerships with pharma companies across geographies, however it may be too premature to comment on this at this point in time," he added.

Earlier this month, Zydus had received approval from the national drug regulator to initiate human trials for its COVID-19 vaccine contender.

With a record single-day surge of 34,956 cases, India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past ten lakh on Friday, just three days after it crossed the nine-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data.