On Friday, 24 July phase-I human clinical trial of India’s first indigenously-developed vaccine against novel coronavirus – Covaxin – began at Delhi AIIMS, reported news agency PTI.
According to the report, a man in his 30s was administered the first dose of the injection. “Over 3,500 volunteers have registered themselves for the trial at AIIMS since last Saturday, of whom at least 22 are being screened,” the report quoted Dr Sanjay Rai as saying. Dr Rai is a professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS and the principal investigator of the study.
The first volunteer to undergo the human trial is a Delhi resident whose health parameters were found to be within the normal range.
The report stated that he was administered with an intramuscular injection at around 1:30 pm on Friday and was kept under observation for a few hours after that. He will further be monitored for the next seven days.
Covaxin, a candidate in the race for the vaccine for the novel coronavirus, has been developed by the Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). It got the approval for human clinical trials from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
In addition to the Covaxin trial at AIIMS Delhi, human trials using the vaccine candidates of two companies – Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila – are on in six cities across India, says a report by the Times Of India.
A third candidate for the vaccine, developed by Oxford University will also be tested in India soon.
Covaxin trials have already begun at 12 location in India. These include the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Delhi, Nizam’s Insititute of Medical Science in Hyderabad and King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam.
