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<strong>Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Balram Bhargava on Thursday hailed the 96 per cent nationwide Covid-19 vaccination coverage of the first dose and said that India is heading towards becoming a vaccine super-power.</strong></p>
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The Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine is under phase 3 of clinical trials in India. This vaccine is expected to be of use in future for the treatment of other diseases as well. Addressing a press briefing, Dr Bhargava said, &quot;India is heading towards becoming a vaccine superpower. The fact is that these vaccines are going to be available for other diseases.&quot;</p>
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&quot;Because such a large proportion of our population has been vaccinated, we are not seeing such a disastrous third surge in terms of hospitalisations and mortality that protection has been provided by the extreme 96 per cent vaccine coverage first dose and that I think is a major strength of the nation,&quot; he added.</p>
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Highlighting the importance of the mRNA vaccine, Dr V K Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog said, &quot;We need the mRNA platform because it&#39;s the new platform. It has been shown that vaccines developed on this platform, at least for coronavirus, have been effective worldwide.&quot;</p>
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&quot;This platform of vaccine is an asset today in wake of COVID, Omicron. But also beyond it for other diseases for which the vaccines have been eluding us; it could be malaria, dengue or TB, there are so many diseases for which we are still hunting for affordable and effective lasting vaccines,&quot; he added.</p>
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Praising the Pune based company Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, Dr Paul said, &quot;We treasure this platform and we compliment the company and group that have gone into it so as a platform, it will continue to be important in the medium term or near future and beyond as an option in the fight for SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It remains relevant just as other so many vaccines are relevant in the world.&quot;</p>
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Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has submitted phase 2 data of mRNA vaccine and has also completed recruitment for phase 3.</p>
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