Rohtak PGIMS to conduct human trials of indigenous Covid vaccine

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 1

Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, is all set to conduct clinical human trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of an indigenous Covid vaccine.

As per official sources, the safety of the candidate vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad-based company, has already been proven in animal studies.

“Rohtak PGIMS is among the 12 institutes across the country and the only one in Haryana selected for conducting the human trials. We have obtained the requisite permissions for the purpose and will begin these as soon as we receive the vaccine,” Dr Savita Verma, Professor at the Department of Pharmacology at Rohtak PGIMS and Principal Investigator of the study, told The Tribune.

Professor Verma said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) had provided the strain of the Coronavirus for developing the vaccine to the said company.

Prof (Dr) Dhruva Chaudhry, State Nodal Officer for Covid-19, and Dr Ramesh Verma, Professor at the Department of Community Medicine at Rohtak PGIMS, are the co-investigators.

The team of researchers has requested residents to come forward as volunteers for the study. The interested persons may call on the PGIMS Covid-10 Helpline no. 9416447071.

“The volunteers participating in this endeavor shall be looked after well to manage any mild or serious side-effects,” maintained Dr Verma, adding that the trials would be conducted in two phases, on 375 volunteers in the first phase and 750 in the second.