The Serum Institute of India said it will halt the Phrase 3 trials that were due to start in India next week.
New Delhi:
The Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the Covishield coronavirus vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford in conjunction with major pharmaceutical company AstraZenca, said today that it will halt phase 3 trials that are due to begin in India next week. The vaccine trial was halted in four countries as a precautionary measure after one of the recipients in the UK showed some potentially adverse symptoms.
The country’s drug controller, DCGI, issued an excuse to the Serum Institute yesterday, questioning why it was continuing the trials in India even though it had stopped elsewhere.
“We are reviewing the situation and stopping trials in India until AstraZeneca restarts trials,” said a statement from the Serum Institute, which was still preparing preliminary work for the trial, including the list of volunteers.
“We are following DCGI’s instructions and will not be able to comment further on the trials. You can connect with DCGI for further updates on this front,” added the statement released today by the institute headed by Adar Poonawalla.
AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant, had said that the volunteer had suffered “an unexplained illness” and that such pauses in drug trials are “routine”.
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