Third Pune College Starts Human Trials to Test 'Covishield' Vaccine Safety. Phase 3 Begins Next Week

The phase two human clinical trial of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) began at the BJ medical college (BJMC) - the third site in Pune.?

BJMC is among the 17 sites identified across the country for the clinical trials.?

The phase-II trial is being conducted to check the safety of the vaccine and will be tried on 150 volunteers reports the Mumbai Mirror.?

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“The institute will conduct trials on 10 volunteers. Five of them were administered the vaccine on Wednesday. On Thursday, we have taken samples of five volunteers for Covid-19 tests. Based on their results, they will be vaccinated tomorrow (Friday),"?Dr M Tambe, dean of BJMC, told the?Mumbai Mirror.?

Also Read: Indians Will Get A Shot Of COVID Vaccine, As Covishield Trials Near Completion

The phase-III trial with 200 volunteers will start from next week said the dean of BJMC.?

According to reports, Pune's Bharti Hospital was the first institute to undertake the trials last month.?Bharati Hospital had started the phase-II trials on August 24. The second group of volunteers there will be vaccinated?on September 10.

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Serum Institute of India has partnered with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca for manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, developed by the University of Oxford.??

“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."

Also Read:?Covishield Vaccine: Everything About COVID-19 Vaccine That May End Pandemic In India

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“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’,” Prakash Kumar Singh, Additional Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Serum Institute of India (SII) told PTI.

Also Read:?Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla Says 300-400 Million Doses Of ‘Covishield’ Will Be Ready By December

The trials are being conducted across 17 selected sites, including AIIMS Delhi, B J Medical College in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore.