Phase-II and III clinical trials of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine begins in India :
Pharma news – 30 August: On 26 August 2020, the second phase of the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine was initiated in India. Two male volunteers were the first to be administered with the vaccine. This vaccine is known as Covishield and it was administered in Bharati hospital.
On 27 August 2020, four more volunteers received the vaccine. Out of these four volunteers, there were three women and one man.
In India, the phase II trials are currently being conducted in Bharati hospital and KEM hospital located in Pune. The authorities conducting the trials have claimed that there would be around 25 participants enrolled in this trial. They further added that this enrollment will be completed within two to three days.
All the volunteers were administered the vaccine only after their RT-PCR[1] and antibody tests showed negative for coronavirus.
Abbreviation : 1. Reverse transcriptase – Polymerase Chain Reaction
Canada has canceled the Covid-19 vaccine trial with CanSino due to delayed shipping :
Pharma news – 30 August: The clinical trials of the CanSino’s vaccine candidate Ad5-nCoV will no longer be conducted in Canada. This was announced by the Canadian government recently.
China’s NRC[1] had already made an agreement with the pharma company. Per this agreement, the funding for CanSino’s vaccine was provided by the Beijing Institute of Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The trials of this vaccine were to be conducted in Canada. However, a delay in the shipment of the vaccine has led to the annulment of this vaccine development agreement.
Speculations about the cancellation of this agreement due to the political tensions between the two countries are yet to be clarified.
The NRC has announced that the phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of this vaccine have been completed elsewhere. It has also added that it is actively looking for North American collaborators for the vaccine development programme.
CanSino had initially refused the claims regarding this cancellation when the topic was broached upon in the last week of August. However, the government funded body announced the cancellation and confirmed things on their end by the end of the week.
The NRC and CanSino signed an agreement to conduct the phase I trials in May 2020.
Abbreviation : 1. National Research Council
CoronaVac gets emergency use approval in China for protection of high-risk people:
Pharma news – 30 August: Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, CoronaVac has received emergency use approval in China. This allows the use of this vaccine in high-risk people especially the medical staff.
China National Biotech Group (CNBG) has also obtained the emergency approval for its vaccine candidate. CNBG is a unit of Sinopharm and currently has 2 Covid-19 vaccine candidates. Both the vaccines are in the phase III trials.
A Chinese health official has recently announced that the vaccine has been administered to the high-risk people since July 2020. He further added that the current approval is aimed to prevent any drastic outbreak in the coming autumn and winter.
The state media had earlier announced that two vaccine candidates were approved in June 2020 and these were launched in July 2020. The names of these vaccines are yet to be disclosed.
The government had also approved the employees of the state firm to take one of these vaccines that were being developed by CNBG. This was specifically given to the employees who traveled oversees prior to June 2020.
China’s military has also approved the use of CanSino Biologics’ vaccine candidate.
References :
- [1] – Indian Express – 27 August 2020
- [2] – Business Standard – 30 August 2020
- [3] – Express Pharma – 30 August 2020
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