HYDERABAD : A vaccine for COVID-19 cannot be expected before early next year as the process involves a lot of clinical trials and data testing, a top official of CSIR- CCMB said on Saturday, a day after ICMR said it aims to launch the world's first COVID-19 vaccine by August 15.
Rakesh K Mishra, Director of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, said the ICMR's letter in this regard may be for internal consumption and aimed at putting pressure on hospitals to get ready for clinical human trials. "If everything goes absolutely really like a textbook plan, then we are talking about six to eight months to think of something that now we have a vaccine.