Phase 3 trial of Coronavirus vaccine 'Covishield' begins in Pune: Official

Following the approval of Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the final stage of clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by UK’s Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) has begun in Pune, an official was quoted by PTI on Monday, September 21. Earlier the dean of the state-run Sassoon General Hospital Dr Muralidhar Tambe said to PTI that 150 to 200 individuals will be administered with the dose of ‘Covishield’ after the Phase 3 clinical trials were briefly paused when a volunteer in Britain had developed an ‘unexplained illness’ during the same. 

This comes after Tambe said that the trials would resume in the upcoming week and indicated that it could be on Monday. He had also said that several people had already come up for volunteering for the trials and the hospitals had begun enrolling them from September 19. The Phase 2 clinical trials of the potential COVID-19 vaccine were conducted at Bharti Vidyapeeth Medical College and KEM Hospital in Pune. 

"The phase-III trial of 'Covishield' vaccine will begin at Sassoon hospital from next week. It is likely to start on Monday. Some volunteers have already come forward for the trial. Around 150 to 200 volunteers will be administered the vaccine candidate dose," Tambe had said.

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The SII has partnered with UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the manufacture of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate that has been developed at the Oxford University. Earlier, world’s third-largest vaccine manufacturer had confirmed that India trials of ‘Covishield’ due to DCGI directing on September 11 that the hospital shall suspend any fresh recruitments in Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials of the potential vaccine until further orders are received by the British company. 

On September 15, DCGI had allowed Serum Insitute to resume the trials after AstraZeneca submitted the recommendations of the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), UK and DSMB India while requesting the permission to restart the enrolment in the subject clinical trial of the vaccine.

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 51% of promised COVID-19 vaccine doses acquired

As the race for acquiring the potential doses of the vaccine has grown more intense, a recent report by an international anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam revealed earlier that rich nations including the United States, UK and Japan that represent only 13 per cent of the world’s population have already acquired 51 per cent of the promised doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidates. 

Before the health and finance ministers of the G20 countries met to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit organisation had alerted on the situation based on the agreements struck between the rich nations with the five leading vaccine candidates that are currently in the final stage of clinical trials according to the data collected by Airfinity. Moreover, it also found out that most companies do not have the ability to make enough COVID-19 vaccine does for all the people who require the same. 

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(With PTI inputs)