Mumbai civic body may conduct clinical trials of Covaxin for teens

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday said it will soon start clinical trials on teenagers in the age of 12 to 18 years for indigenous vaccine Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday said it will soon start clinical trials on teenagers in the age of 12 to 18 years for indigenous vaccine Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).

HT Image

According to BMC officials, they have written to the central government about them being ready for conducting clinical trials on children.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said, “We have written to the central government wherein we have shown our willingness to conduct clinical trials on children between the age of 12 to 18 years. We will now await further guidance from the central government on the same.”

According to BMC officials, they will wait for the Central government to understand what should be the sample size and what should be the ratio of age group maintained for going ahead with the clinical trials for Covaxin.

The Central government in mid-May 2021 had announced that it would start clinical trials on the age group of 2 to 18 years using Covaxin. Following this, it was announced that five medical institutions in Kanpur, Patna, Mysuru, Hyderabad and Nagpur had been approved by the ethics committee to conduct clinical trials on children between two to 18 years of age.

Meanwhile, according to BMC officials, it will also have to keep a team of paediatricians ready for having the clinical trials conducted for those in the 12 to 18 years age group. The trial will be a basis on consent from parents of those undergoing trials.