Among the ten centres selected for Covidshield testing, Mumbai’s KEM Hospital got approval on 7th August from ICMR to commence phase 2 and 3 trials of the vaccine being developed by Serum institute of India. In the first stage conducted at U.K, the clinical efficacy was proven to be safe with minimal side effects.
Dr. Hemanth, the KEM hospital dean says, the vaccine developed at Oxford university will soon be tested in a week on 160 people and 1600 people across 10 centres as part of phase 2 trials. The dean stated that state’s ethics committee clearance is due to be processed for further testing. Deshmukh told, the hospital began inviting healthy volunteers where they can accommodate 160 people from different socio-economic backgrounds in the age group of 20-50. He further added that the second and third phase will be initiated to asses the immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal health commissioner said he is glad that KEM hospital from Mumbai has been opted for testing covishield in view of their credibility and good quality health services.