Covaxin, India’s indigenous vaccine candidate developed in partnership with Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) and ICMR will be starting their human trials on 200 healthy individuals in Belagavi, Karnataka.
The trials will be conducted by Jeevan Rekha Hospital in Belagavi and monitored by BBIL and ICMR, reported The Hindu.
On Monday, 29 June, the company announced that they received approval from Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for Phase I & II Human Clinical Trials, and are scheduled to start across India in July 2020.
On Thursday, 3 July, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) made a claim of aiming to launch India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by 15 August.
To achive this ambitious target, the development and trials have been put on a fast track. Although many experts and much of India’s medical community is still sketpical.
Virologist Dr Jacob John told FIT,
However, Amit Bhate, director of Jeevan Rekha told The Hindu that they are happy to be part of the trial “of the first indigenously developed vaccine for this dreaded disease.”
(With inputs from The Hindu.)
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