COVID-19 Vaccine: Serum Institute to Begin Trial From Today

Serum Institute Of India based in Pune has started the phase 2 human clinical trial of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate. They have partnered with the British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca for manufacturing the vaccine candidate. It is developed by the University of Oxford.

The randomized dozing will begin at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in Pune.

Prakash Kumar Singh, Additional Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Serum Institute of India (SII) said, “We have got all approvals from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). We are going to start the human clinical trial process at the Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Medical College and Hospital from August 25.”

He added, “We are sure that in line with the philosophy of our group, we are going to make available a world class COVID-19 vaccine for people of our country and make our country ‘AatmaNirbhar‘.”

For the unversed, the second phase of human trials involves dosing healthy volunteers with the vaccine. This is to study the safety and efficacy of the vaccine candidate.

The vaccine candidate developed by the Jenner Insitute of Oxford University will be launched under the brand name ‘COVIDSHIELD’ in India.

Currently, there are more than 165 vaccine candidates across the globe in different stages of trials. Out of which 32 of them have reached the crucial stage of human testing. In India, there are 3 potential vaccine candidates in clinical trials. The Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, Covaxin, and Zycov D.

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