COVID-19 vaccine: AIIMS Delhi to begin human trials for Covaxin today

AIIMS Delhi one of the 12 hospitals selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research to conduct phase I and II human trials of Covaxin.

Covaxin, Coronavirus vaccine: The All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Delhi is all set to begin human trials today for indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Covaxin. The premier health institute at the national capital has already received approval from its ethics committee in this regard. Biotech firm Bharat Biotech has developed Covaxin in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at its high-containment facility (Bio-Safety Level 3) at Genome Valley, Hyderabad.

AIIMS Delhi will begin the process by registering volunteers for the trials. It is expected to enroll as many as 100 volunteers for human trials; the vaccine will be tested on 375 volunteers in phase 1. AIIMS Delhi one of the 12 hospitals selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct phase I and II human trials of Covaxin. On Monday, it will first screen volunteers to check their health condition before vaccinating. Volunteers with no comorbid conditions and no record of COVID-19 are eligible to participate in the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. They must be aged between 18-55 years with no serious ailments.

Bharat Biotech has recently got DGCI approval for human clinical trials of Covaxin. Along with AIIMS New Delhi, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, and AIIMS Patna are also participating in the first phase human trials for the Coronavirus vaccine. Trials have already started in the other two institutes. Dr Sanjay Rai, Principal Investigator Covid-19 Vaccine trial at AIIMS, informed that the process of human trials at AIIMS Delhi was delayed because of approval from the Ethics committee took some time to come, reported The Indian Express.

In order to get volunteers registered for human trials, apart from media advertisements, AIIMS Delhi has launched a dedicated email ID—Ctaiims.covid19@gmail.com; it has also allocated a phone number—7428847499 to make it easier for people to register through calls and SMSes.

According to Dr. Rai, as many as 15 people have already contacted them for human trials as of Sunday. He informed initially per day only five volunteers will be administered the dose of the vaccine candidate. Then it will be increased to 10-15 participants per day.