Oxford University started its Phase 2 of the human trials on Tuesday with volunteer participants at Bharati Hospital. The intense battle against the Coronavirus started back in March. All the scientists across the world are doing their level best to prepare an antidote of this virus. We have seen multiple pandemics since the beginning of humanity. AIDS pandemic is one such that came in 1981 and is present to this day. Ebola pandemic broke out in 2014. The inventions to get rid of SARS-CoV-2 are in action.
Oxford University’s Progress So Far Against the COVID-19
The Phase 2 trial of Oxford University will take place at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India. The scientists at Oxford University started prioritizing research back in January. The new vaccine is in production. To test it, Dr. Sandy Douglas, who is leading the vaccine manufacturing scale-up project explained the vaccine progress. He said, “The scale of the pandemic poses a huge challenge for vaccine manufacturing. By starting on large-scale manufacturing immediately, we hope to accelerate the availability of high quality and safe vaccine.”
Oxford University to carry out Phase 2 Trial in India
The OXford’s vaccine is is preperation at SII, commenced at Pune’s Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday. Five volunteers enrolled themselves for the COVID-19 vaccine after the trail information surfaced on Tuesday. Dr. Sanjay Lalwani, Medical Director of Bharti Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital gave his statement about the trial. He said, “The COVID-19 vaccine test was conducted on five volunteers. Of them, the three volunteers antibodies test came positive. This made them ineligible for the trial.”
Hence, two men will take the next step. They are under monitoring right now, to see any results on their bodies. The volunteers, aged 32 and 48 received a 0.5 mil dose of the vaccine, named ‘covishield‘. The doctors checked their temperature and heartbeat parameters before injecting the dose. Both the volunteers will have a second dose after 28 days and they will come back to the hospital after 180 days. A six-month period will tell the success of the vaccine. One of the two volunteers is an employee in a private company. The other one is a worker at the hospital itself.
Dr. Vishwajeet Kadam, Maharashtra Minister who is a pro-Vice-Chacellor and Secretary at Bharati Vidyapeeth expressed his optimism about the trial. He said that in two-three months, the SII may begin the wholesale manufacturing of the ‘Covishield’ vaccine.
About the vaccine
The vaccine ‘Covishield’ is prepared from a weakened version of adenovirus after genetically modifying it. The Jenner Institute of Oxford University is developing the vaccine and will have its launch in India after ascertaining the effects of the vaccine on the volunteers. SII has tied up with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to produce approximately 1 billion doses of the vaccine in India.
Apart from the Serum Institute of India, two other sites will also receive the vaccine in the next few days. They are KEM-Pune and PGI-Chandigarh.
About Oxford University Phase 2
It is reported that monitoring of a total of 1,600 people will take place in Phase 2 and 3 of the trial. The vaccine’s dose is administered within seven days for a person’s admission and the safety procedure follows after a week. Social distancing is to maintain those who are under monitoring. The next trial will take place after a month.
