Coronavirus Vaccine: Looking To Volunteer For Covaxin Trials? Know How To Register For The Trial At AIIMS

Phase I of the trial will be done on healthy people, aged between 18 and 55 years, having no co-morbid conditions.

Indian company Bharat Biotech claimed to invent the vaccine of Covid 19 named COVAXIN and approved for Trial on Human as approved by Indian Council of Medical Research. (Photo Illustration by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Covaxin Trials: In a development that brought hopes amid the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed lakhs in the country so far, the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences -Delhi on Monday started recruitment drive of volunteers for conducting human clinical trials of the indigenously developed vaccine candidate Covaxin. According to the news agency PTI, premier medical institute's Director, Dr Randeep Guleria the human trials have started. Guleria said, “This is something which is very heartening because this is an indigenous vaccine. In India, we don't do research and development.” Guleria added, “We are very good in mass production. Even if a vaccine comes from any part of the world, India will be involved in its production because 60 per cent or more of the vaccines of the world are being made in India”. The institute’s ethics committee had approved human trials of Covaxin on July 18, as per the report in Money Control. The potential vaccine is being developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). AIIMS-Delhi is among 12 places where the trial for Covaxin is going to take place besides AIIMS-Patna, among other regions. Who can enrol? In the first stage of clinical trials, healthy participants between 18 and 55 years of age, with no comorbidities and without a history of the disease, will be selected. The enrolment process for this phase started on July 20. AIIMS-Delhi will select around 100 participants of the 375 volunteers for the trial. The remaining will participate at other sites, reports suggest. There are three formulations of the vaccine, and each subject will be given any one in two doses two weeks apart as per PTI report. The first 50 will get the lowest strength dose. If it is found safe in them, then it will be given to another 50 patients in high doses, according to Dr Sanjay Rai, who is the principal investigator of the trials, who is  a professor at the Centre for Community Medicine . This will be a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Women with no pregnancy will also be selected for the trial in the first phase, he said. How to sign up for the trial? Healthy individuals interested in participating in Covaxin trails can apply either via an e-mail or SMS. They can also give a call at the registered number.

• E-mail: ctaiims.covid19@gmail.com
• SMS or call on +91-7428847499.

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