COVID-19 vaccine update: 3 Indian vaccines in different phases of clinical testing, says ICMR — check details

DCGI had given approval to Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting the Phase II and Phase III of human clinical trials.

COVID-19 vaccine update: Apprising about the status of the most-awaited COVID-19 vaccine, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday said that three Indian Coronavirus vaccine candidates are in different stages of clinical testing, PTI reported.

Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR, was quoted saying that currently there are three Indian COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are in different phases of clinical testing. The Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research stated that of the three candidates — phase 1 trials have been completed for the Bharat Biotech vaccine and the DNA vaccine of Zydus Cadila. The phase 2 of testing will begin now.

As far as the third — Oxford vaccinee, being manufactured by Serum Institute of India — is concerned, he further added that it has received the approval for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, and these trials will begin within a week at 17 sites across the country.

Earlier, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the advanced stage of clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine being jointly developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca in India. DCGI had given approval to Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting the Phase II and Phase III of human clinical trials. SII is supporting Oxford-AstraZeneca in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, PTI reported.

As per the approval, it had been suggested that the clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate be conducted across India. As per this revised proposal, up to 1,600 people over 18 years of age are to participate in clinical trials that are to be held across 17 select centers.

PTI had reported that the trials are to be conducted at AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, B J Medical College in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore, among other places.

SII has collaborated with AstraZeneca to manufacture the Oxford vaccine and it had submitted an application to DCGI on July 25 seeking permission to conduct clinical trials. Across the world, the vaccine is in Phase III and Phase III trials in the United Kingdom; Phase III trials in Brazil and Phase I and Phase II trials in South Africa.