PGIMS to conduct clinical trials of Covaxin

Professors at PGIMS’ pharmacology department Dr Ramesh Verma, Dr Savita Verma, and Haryana’s nodal officer for Covid-19 Dr Dhruva Chaudhary constitute the three-member team formed to conduct the trials

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Haryana’s Rohtak is all set to conduct the clinical trials of the country’s ‘first’ indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.

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Professors at PGIMS’ pharmacology department Dr Ramesh Verma, Dr Savita Verma, and Haryana’s nodal officer for Covid-19 Dr Dhruva Chaudhary constitute the three-member team formed to conduct the trials. Dr Savita, who is also the principal investigator, said, “Rohtak PGIMS is among 12 institutions across the country chosen to check the efficacy of this vaccine. The safety of this vaccine has already been proven in animal studies by Bharat Biotech. It is an inactivated vaccine created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2. Inactivated vaccines use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease. It helps the immune system create an antibody response towards virus,” she added.

Dr Chaudhary said this trial was planned to be conducted in two phases: seamless phase 1, followed by phase 2 of randomised, double-blind, multicenter study to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, tolerability and immunogenicity of the whole-virion in activated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in healthy volunteers.