Phase 2 of human trials of vaccine starts in Rohtak

Phase 2 of human trials of vaccine starts in Rohtak

50 Volunteers To Be Part Of Trial At Institute

Sat Singh TNN

Rohtak:08.09.2020

After the successful completion of Phase 1 of human clinical trials of the indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, the PGIMS-Rohtak on Monday has started trials for Phase 2 by roping in more volunteers for the process.

In the Phase 2, 330 volunteers would be administered Bharat Biotech's Covaxin vaccine throughout the country and of them 50 of them would go under vaccine trial at PGIMSRohtak. Bharat Biotech, in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research, began research on the first homegrown Covid-19 vaccine in the country a few months ago.

Dr Ramesh Verma, coinvestigator of vaccine trial at PGIMS, said screening of 15 volunteers was done on Monday and after getting a negative Covid-19 result, they would be administered the first dose of Covaxin on Wednesday. He said the following dose would be given after a 28-days and the impact of the vaccine would be seen on the volunteers over 6 months. He said this time the age category for vaccine trials is 12 years to 65 years. "For Phase1, we had invited healthy volunteers, but this time persons with controlled diabetes, asthma, etc. can also participate to observe impact of the virus," Dr Verma added.

Dr Savita Verma, principal investigator of vaccine trials in PGIMS, said they have received the vaccine for the second phase and the process would start as soon as the screening process gets over. She said the permission to conduct Phase 2 was given by the Drug Controller General of India based on the results of Phase 1. All volunteers who participated in the trial are healthy and keeping fine. In the first phase, PGIMS had covered 81 persons, while 250 people have registered for Phase 2, she added.

FOR A SAFE JOURNEY: A passenger used a hand sanitizer before entering a Metro station in Gurugram on Monday