Coronavirus COVID19 vaccine update: In a significant progress, Phase 2 clinical human trials of India’s first indigenous experimental coronavirus vaccine candidate ‘COVAXIN’ began on Tuesday in Nagpur. Phase 2 clinical trials are beginning today at Gillurkar Hospital and Research Institute in Nagpur. Hyderabad-based biotech firm Bharat Biotech is developing the COVID19 vaccine candidate in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
It took 30 days for ‘COVAXIN’ to successfully complete the Phase 1 trial in India. As many as 12 sites have been selected for the human trials of ‘COVAXIN’.
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15 May 2025
The 12 test sites are All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, AIIMS Patna, PGI Rohtak in Haryana, Redkar Hospital in Goa, and Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar. Apart from these, COVIXIN clinical test sites are located in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam, Karnataka’s Belgaum, Maharashtra’s Nagpur, Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur and Kanpur, Tamil Nadu’s Kattankulathur, and Telangana’s Hyderabad.
Earlier, Chairman and MD Bharat Biotech International Krishna Ella said that safety and quality of the COVAXIN would be ‘paramount’. Even though there was tremendous pressure on the company, the firm won’t “kill more people with the wrong vaccine.”
COVAXIN has been categorized as an “inactivated vaccine”. COVAXIN is being developed by using particles of the Coronavirus that have been killed. These particles are unable to infect and replicate. Bharat Biotech revealed that particular doses of these particles would be injected into the human body. These will help build immunity within the human body and create antibodies against the virus.
A vaccine needs to go through the rigorous three phases of human trials. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation in India has given its nod for Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials so far.
