Mysore/Mysuru: The Phase-2 human trials of Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’, manufactured at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII)  will begin at Mysuru’s JSS Hospital and Medical College in a couple of days. The Institute is awaiting guidelines and samples from SII. 

The JSS Hospital has been shortlisted to take up the COVID-19 vaccine trials. Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, Director of JSS Hospital and Head of COVID-19 Testing Laboratory Col. (Retd) Dayanand said that the institution has been granted permission to conduct the human trials and ICMR and other statutory authorities have already inspected the facilities at the Institution. 

“Inspection of infrastructure and clearance were crucial and we have been approved to conduct human trials. We are waiting for test samples and guidelines. The trials will start in a couple of days,” he said. 

The vaccine candidate, developed by Jenner Institute of Oxford University, will be launched under the brand name ‘Covishield’ in India. The Serum Institute has tied up with British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca to produce 1 billion doses of the vaccine in the country.

The first human trials of vaccine began yesterday with the first patients screened by Bharati Vidyapeetham Deemed University (BVDU) Medical College and Hospital in Pune. Yesterday, some patients were screened and the next stage is to get their COVID antibody test reports. If they come negative, they will be inoculated with ‘Covishield’ vaccine.

The trials are to be conducted across 17 selected sites, including AIIMS Delhi, Bharati Vidyapeetham Deemed University in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and JSS  Hospital in Mysuru. Over 1,600 people aged above 18 years are likely to participate in the trials. 

The vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold, adenovirus, taken from chimpanzees and genetically modified. The vaccine candidate – ChadOx1NcOV – has shown encouraging results in early human trials, according to experts. Results of phase 1/2 trial, published in ‘The Lancet’ medical journal, shows that the vaccine had induced strong immune response.