Bhubaneswar: The preparations for the commencement of the second phase of the human clinical trial of India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covaxin’ is underway at a hospital here, according to the officials.
“The Phase I of the trial is still continuing as we are planning for the start of the Phase II trial shortly,” Principal Investigator of the trial at Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences, Dr E Venkata Rao was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
According to Dr Rao, the blood samples collected from the volunteers who had received the vaccine were to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine in terms of the level of antibodies developed. He also said that there had been ‘no side effects’ in the vaccine’s first phase trial.
Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has shortlisted the IMS and SUM Hospital among country’s 12 medical centres for conducting the vaccine’s human trial. Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
“Two doses of the vaccine were administered to each volunteer after they were selected through a screening process conducted over a period of three to seven days prior to vaccination. The first dose was administered on Day Zero while the blood sample was collected. The second dose was given on Day 14 and the blood sample was also collected,” Dr Rao was quoted by the agency.
