NEW DELHI, March 3 (Xinhua) -- India's vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said Wednesday that its vaccine - Covaxin- has demonstrated 81 percent interim efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in those without prior infection after the second dose.

Elderly people wait to receive COVID-19 vaccine at a government hospital in New Delhi, India on March 1, 2021. (Photo: Xinhua)

The company on Wednesday announced its Phase 3 results of Covaxin, saying it has demonstrated interim clinical efficacy of 81 percent.

"The whole virion inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate demonstrated an interim vaccine efficacy of 81 percent in its Phase 3 clinical trial. The trials involved 25,800 subjects, the largest ever conducted in India, in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the company said.

The company described the results as an "important milestone."

"Today is an important milestone in vaccine discovery for science and our fight against coronavirus. With today's results from our Phase 3 clinical trials, we have now reported data on our COVID-19 vaccine from Phase 1, 2, and 3 trials involving around 27,000 participants. Covaxin demonstrates high clinical efficacy trend against COVID-19 but also significant immunogenicity against the rapidly emerging variants," said Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech.

The company also said analysis from the National Institute of Virology indicates that vaccine-induced antibodies can neutralise the variant strains found in Britain and other heterologous strains.

"Bharat Biotech expects to share further details of the trial results as additional data become available. An additional interim analysis is planned for 87 cases, and the final analysis is planned for 130 cases," the company said.

Covaxin is one of two COVID-19 vaccines to have been cleared for emergency use approval by the Indian government.