Bhubaneswar: Preparations are underway at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here for the commencement of the second phase of the human clinical trial of ‘Covaxin’, India’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine.
“The Phase I of the trial is still continuing and we are planning to start the Phase II trial shortly,” Principal Investigator of the trial at IMS and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences of the SOA Deemed to be University, Dr E Venkata Rao said.
He said that each volunteer was administered two doses of the vaccine. “The first dose was administered on Day Zero after which the blood samples were collected. The second dose was given on Day 14 and again blood samples were collected,” Dr Rao said.
The blood samples were collected to ascertain how effective the vaccine was in terms of the level of antibodies developed, he said adding that there had been ‘no side effects’ in the first-phase trial.
Blood samples of the volunteers will also be collected on different days (28, 42, 104, 194 days) for estimating the duration of protection, he added.
Dr. Rao said there was a lot of enthusiasm among people to be part of the second phase of the human trial. Those who wish to be part of this trial could contact the centre at http://ptctu.soa.ac.in.
The volunteers of the first-phase trial were selected through a screening process conducted over a period of three to seven days prior to vaccination.
The IMS and SUM Hospital is one of the 12 medical centres in India and the only one in Odisha chosen by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting the human trial of the vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
