Delhi : Screening begins for vaccine volunteers

New Delhi: Health screening of people who volunteered for the trial of Covaxin — India’s indigenous vaccine for Covid-19 — has started.

Delhi-based Dr Dangs Lab, which has been selected as the central lab for human clinical trials of Covaxin, said it has already started receiving samples from 50 to 100 subjects per day from various trial sites for safety testing.

“We will be increasing operations as per assigned timelines to cover 12 sites across the country over this month,” Dr Navin Dang, founder of Dr Dangs Lab, said.

Covaxin has been developed and manufactured by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research. It is currently undergoing phase I trial, during which 375 people will be vaccinated to assess safety of the vaccine and to calculate the dose range.

Dr Sanjay K Rai, a professor in the community medicine department at AIIMS Delhi, who is heading the trials at the institute, said health screening is being done to rule out any pre-existing illness and to study the immunity profile of volunteers. “Those who have no pre-existing illness or any sign of existing antibody against Covid-19 will be given Covaxin. We are planning to give the first few doses of the vaccine on Friday,” he said.

Apart from AIIMS Delhi, 11 other hospitals, including AIIMS Patna and PGI Rohtak, are conducting trials for Covaxin. All these centres will be sending samples of the study subjects to Dr Dangs Lab. “Stringent quality norms are being followed as mandated by regulatory authorities. Our lab has renowned experts in each field who are working tirelessly and collectively to provide quality and timely results to fulfil the imminent need of an effective and safe Covid-19 vaccine,” the Lab said in a statement.

Dr Dangs lab is processing all samples for screening and safety for the various phases of this clinical trial, whereas all the efficacy studies will be performed in NIV (Pune).