Serum Institute-ICMR finish enrollment of participants for phase 3 trial of Covid-19 vaccine

Mumbai: Serum Institute of India (SII) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), have completed the enrollment of phase 3 clinical trials for their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, a move that takes India one step closer to getting a vaccine for Covid-19 by early next year. Both the organisations have also collaborated for clinical development of SII's vaccine candidate with US drug maker Novavax.

SII has already manufactured 40 million doses of the vaccine, under the at risk manufacturing and stockpiling license from DCGI, the company said. The joint trial has been funded by ICMR, while SII has funded other expenses for the vaccine.

The vaccine branded as COVISHIELD is developed at the SII Pune laboratory with a master seed from Oxford University/AstraZeneca. "The promising results of the trials so far give confidence that COVISHIELD could be a realistic solution to the deadly pandemic. It is by far the most advanced vaccine in human testing in India", SII said in a statement.


The other vaccine candidate Novavax, is also under advance stage of trial, SII said it has received the bulk vaccine and Matrix-M adjuvant from Novavax and will soon fill and finish them in vials.