The race for an original vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection is sincere and serious in intention. Human trials that are ongoing using the vaccine candidates of two companies namely Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila are presently ongoing in six cities.

Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila have been granted permission for Phase I and II clinical trials. They administered the first doses of their respective vaccine candidates to volunteers on 15th July. A third vaccine candidate is developed by Oxford University and is soon going to be tested in India. Serum Institute has said that it will soon begin human trials as it receives approval.

Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, Delhi and the National Institute of Virology, Pune. It will be tested at 12 hospitals in almost 11 cities. The first phase of the trial will include 500 volunteers, between 18 and 55 years of age with no comorbidities.

Zydus Cadila’s candidate, known as ZyCoV-D, is being tested at the company’s research center in Ahmedabad but will soon be tested in multiple cities.

Covaxin trials have already been initiated in Hyderabad, Kancheepuram, Patna, Rohtak, and Delhi, and are to be soon carried out in Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur, Belgaum, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Goa and Visakhapatnam.

The latest candidate was a 30-year-old man, he was the 1st person from Delhi given a 0.5 ml injection of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin at AIIMS on Friday. Dr Sanjay Rai, principal investigator of the vaccine trial project, told TOI at AIIMS, Delhi, that they observed him for 2 hours and there was no immediate side-effect. The volunteer was allowed to go home and he will be examined again after two days.

Dr Chandrashekhar Gillurkar, Director, Nagpur’s Gillurkar Multispecialty Hospital and Research Centre said that the only site for human trials of Covaxin in Maharashtra is this center and is expected to start its Phase 1 by July-end or in the 1st week of August. They have shortlisted 10 individuals. At present, screening is underway. They are testing their health parameters and blood samples for further analysis in New Delhi and would take up to 4 days for complete screening.

Source: ET Healthworld