COVID-19 vaccine: Third phase trials begins at Pune’s Sassoon hospital

Pune: The phase-3 human clinical trial of the Covishield vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India started their third phase trials at the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune.

Dr Muralidhar Tambe, Dean, Sassoon General Hospital informed that they will administer a dose to 150-200 volunteers.

Sassoon Hospital had invited volunteers to take part in the trials which will identify the safety of the vaccine. The first such trial had taken place in Bharati hospital based in Pune. The third phase of human clinical trial of this vaccine developed by Oxford University is being manufactured by Serum Institute of Pune.

The phase II trials were also conducted at the KEM Hospital in the Pune city. The Serum has teamed up with British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca for manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, created by the University of Oxford.

Earlier this month, the Serum had halted the clinical trials of the vaccine candidate in India. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) ordered the Serum Institute to suspend any new recruitment in the phase-II and III clinical trials of the vaccine till further orders after AstraZeneca paused the trials in other nations because of "an unexplained illness" in a participant. However, on September 15, the drugs controller body gave nod to the Serum to resume clinical trial of the vaccine.