Oxford's Covid-19 vaccine trials to take off at two Mumbai institutes

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Aug 18, 2020, 10:23 IST

NEW DELHI: Mumbai's KEM and Nair hospitals have begun the preliminaries of conducting the Oxford University-Astra Zeneca Covid-19 vaccine trial.
The vaccine has been named as Covishield, its technical name is ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

Here is a look at the details on the trial’s nature and the selection criteria —

1

Phase II/III trial's purpose

To see if a vaccine made from the weakened virus that causes common cold in chimps can protect from Covid.
The tech, developed at Oxford’s Jenner Institute, has been used to make vaccines against ﬂu, Zika and MERS
A total of 17 institutions in India to participate in trial, to be conducted by Serum Institute of India, Pune.
The siz of the sample would be 1,600 people — 400 for immune response study and 1,200 to gauge safety.

2

Who can pariticpate

Anyone between the age 18 to 99 years is eligible to participate. Both male and female and permitted to take part in the trial.
The participant should be a healthy adult as determined by medical history. Informed consent a must.
He/She must be resident of study area for ease of sample collection, visits.
Women of childbearing potential must have a negative urine pregnancy test within 24 hours before vaccine administration.

3

Who cannot take part

Person with acute illness with or without fever at the time of vaccine administration or with history of lab-conﬁ rmed Covid-19 in household or work contact.
Has developed antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 With history of severe allergic reactions after previous vaccinations.
Has conﬁrmed or suspected condition with impaired/altered function of immune system.

4

Where to contact

Mumbai — King Edward Memorial Hospital (022-24133767, 24174420); BYL Nair Hospital (022-23027644, 45 (direct))
Pune — BJ Medical College, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Jehangir Hospital
Wardha — Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College
Nagpur — Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Science