Mumbai: City hospitals to soon start trials of new Serum vaccine and ZyCoV-D for children

Both KEM and Nair hospitals are in the final phase of receiving approval from their ethics committee.

HOSPITALS IN Mumbai are in the process to conduct trials for new vaccines against Covid-19. KEM hospital is slated to begin trial for Phases II and III of Covovax for adults while Nair hospital will soon start with Phase-III trial of ZyCoV-D vaccine for children. Mumbai’s JJ hospital has finished enrolment of adult participants for ZyCoV-D vaccine candidate and is now studying efficacy data.

Both KEM and Nair hospitals are in the final phase of receiving approval from their ethics committee. Covovax, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), will undergo a Phase II/III trial to measure safety and immune response across 20 hospital sites. Of those, eight sites are in Maharashtra. The trial was registered in February.

Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of KEM hospital, said they will soon begin enrolling participants for the trial. KEM was also part of Serum institute’s Covishield trial.

Zydus Cadilla Healthcare is conducting a trial across 59 sites for children aged between 12 and 18 and adults aged up to 65 for ZyCoV-D. Of them, 14 sites are in Maharashtra. From Mumbai, Nair and JJ hospitals are part of the trial.

Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said Nair hospital will enrol 50 children for the trial. “We submitted the proposal to the ethics committee, they had queries. We have resubmitted the proposal clarifying their queries. We are awaiting their final nod,” said Dr Ramesh Bharmal, dean of Nair hospital.

JJ hospital finished the enrolment of 1,000 adult participants in April and administered the vaccine to them. “We have noted a good immune response. We will follow up with the participants for seven months,” said Dr Akash Khobragade, superintendent at St George’s hospital.

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