Another Desi COVID Vaccine In Pipeline As Reliance Gets Nod To Conduct Trials

New Delhi: Another desi vaccine may be round the corner.

The subject expert committee (SEC) of India’s drug regulatory authority has approved the application of Reliance Life Sciences seeking to conduct clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine.

Part of India’s biggest private sector company Reliance Industries, Reliance Life Sciences will soon be conducting trials of its recombinant protein-based vaccine candidate against coronavirus.

According to a report in the Economic Times, Reliance had approached the drug regulator for phase 1 trial of its proposed two-dose vaccine.

Phase 1 clinical trials are meant to obtain information on safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and mechanism of action of drugs with the objective of determining the maximum tolerated dose.

“Phase 1 trials are usually conducted for 58 days to check the tolerated dose strength. Once it’s done, the company can apply for conducting phase 2/3 trials,” ET quoted a company source as saying.

Reliance Life Sciences’ vaccine is similar to the one being developed by Biological E.

Two of the six vaccines to have got emergency use authorization in India so far are indigenously developed and produced. They are Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s Zycov-D. The others are Serum Institute of India’s Astrazeneca-developed Covishield, Russia’s Sputnik V, US-developed Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.