India's COVID-19 vaccine to start human trials this week

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, will begin clinical trials of COVAXIN, India’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, this week.  AIIMS-Patna is among the 12 medical institutes selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting human trials of the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine (BBV152 COVID vaccine). The inactivated vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR - NIV received DCGI nod for phase 1 and 2 human trials last week. 

A report in TOI quoting AIIMS-Patna Superintendant Dr CM Singh said that the clinical trials of the country’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine would start in the next two days.“Its pre-clinical trials on animals have been successful. The results were also encouraging. It was seen in the trials that animals developed immunity effectively. We would follow the protocols for clinical trials suggested by ICMR,”Dr Singh was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

He said that the clinical vaccine trials will be initially carried out on 100 people registered for the same, adding they will increase the number in the second phase, depending on the outcome of the study. The duration of the clinical trials is 6-8 months. According to Dr Singh, the vaccine would be tested only on healthy people aged between 22-50 years, irrespective of gender, added the report. The total number of coronavirus cases across the world has crossed the 11-million mark and the death toll has gone past 540,000. There currently are over 100 vaccines at various stages of development worldwide, including in India, Britain, China, the US, Russia and Israel.