Serum Institute To Start Final Phase Of COVID Vaccine Trial Next Week

Pune: The Serum Institute of India (SII) will start the third and final phase of human trial of Oxford-Astrazeneca’s coronavirus vaccine at Pune’s Sasson General Hospital early next week.

“The phase III trial of ‘Covishield’ vaccine will begin at Sassoon hospital from next week. It is likely to start on Monday. Some volunteers have already come forward for the trial. Around 150 to 200 volunteers will be administered the vaccine candidate dose,” Sassoon General Hospital dean Dr Muralidhar Tambe was quoted as saying by PTI.

Serum Institute, which got permission from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct second and third phases of trial on August 3, began second phase of clinical trials on August 25.

SII had to stop trials on September 8 after Oxford-Astrazeneca confirmed that one person who had been administered the shot during trials in the UK reported illness.

Astrazeneca resumed the trial in the UK on September 12, while the DCGI gave SII the nod to restart on September 15.

On Saturday, SII started enrolling volunteers for phase III trials.