Clinical trial: Three more volunteers given Oxford Covid-19 vaccine

Three more volunteers were administered the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine candidate at a medical college in Pune as part of the phase II clinical trial of the medicine

Three more volunteers were administered the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate at a medical college in Pune on Thursday as part of the phase II clinical trial of the medicine, a senior doctor from the medical facility said.

Earlier, two volunteers, aged 32 and 48, were given a shot of the 'Covishied vaccine, being manufactured by the city-based Serum Institute of India (SII), on Wednesday when the phase II clinical trial of the medicine began at Bharti Vidyapeeth's Medical College and Hospital here.

"On Thursday afternoon, three more volunteers - two females and a male - were administered the vaccine candidate after their reports of RT-PCR test for COVID-19 and antibody test came negative," said Dr Sunita Palkar, in-charge of the research cell at the medical college.

She said following the administration of the vaccine dose to two volunteers on Wednesday, five more persons were screened. Out of them, the COVID-19 and antibody test reports of four came out negative on Thursday and they became eligible for the clinical trial.

The fifth volunteer was excluded from the trial as the person's antibody test report came out positive, she said.

The city-based KEM Hospital, another facility chosen for the vaccine's clinical trials in the country, is also scheduled to conduct a trial on some persons on Thursday, a senior doctor from the medical facility said.

"We screened five people yesterday and we are now waiting for their reports. As per the results of the report, thevaccine will be injected to the eligible volunteers," said the doctor.

Meanwhile, the vital health parameters of the two volunteers, who were administered the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate at Bharti Vidyapeeth's Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday, are normal, the medical facility's deputy medical director Dr Jitendra Oswal said.

"Since yesterday, our medical team is in touch with the two volunteers and both are fine. They do not have any pain, fever, injection-side reaction or systemic illness post-vaccination," he said.

"They have been given all the necessary emergency numbers (to contact in case of need) and our medical team is also conducting follow-ups with them," he added.

The vaccine dose will be repeated on both the volunteers after one month, the hospital's medical director Dr Sanjay Lalwani earlier said.

He said in all, 25 candidates will be given the vaccine in the next seven days.

SII, the world's largest vaccine maker has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.