Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine trials to start from Bhubaneswar from today

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Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine trials to start from Bhubaneswar from today
Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine trials to start from Bhubaneswar from today

New Delhi : The Human clinical trials of the Indian Coronavirus vaccine Covaxin will begin from Bhubaneswar from today (July 22) onwards. It is one of the 12 Centers selected by the ICMR for human trials of the vaccine. The human trials of BBV152 COVID Vaccine or Covaxin will begin on Wednesday in a special laboratory set up at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM (IMS & SUM) Hospital, in accordance with the protocols laid down by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the official at the facility said.

The special laboratory - Preventive and Therapeutic Clinical Trial Unit (PTCTU) - was inaugurated at the institute on Monday by its dean Gangadhar Sahoo. "All necessary arrangements have been made for conducting the human trials. We expect to start from Wednesday," Dr E Venkat Rao, the principal investigator of the trial process and professor of community medicine at the hospital, told PTI.

All the healthy volunteers taking part in the human trials are between the age group of 18 to 55. It has been made clear that all the volunteers will be given a thorough testing over their health before administering them the vaccine.

The trial centre will conduct physical and laboratory tests, in accordance with the ICMR protocol, and counsel the volunteers who meet all criteria about the possible risks and obtain their consent before initiating the process.

Nearly 30 to 40 volunteers will be chosen for the first phase of the human trials which will commence from June 22.