Coronavirus vaccine: Oxford vaccine human trials will begin next month in India, vaccine may be prized at ₹1,000 per dose

Serum Institute of India is all set to commence Phase I/II trial of the vaccine candidate developed by the researchers at the Oxford University, after seeking the regulatory approvals from the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI). Oxford’s vaccine candidate ‘ChAdOx1 nCoV-19’, has shown extremely encouraging results in its early phase trials, according to the results published in UK-based Science journal “The Lancet’.

The Oxford vaccine has shown to give “double-immunity” in its preliminary trials and has been licenced to AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharma firm which is currently conducting Phase III of human trials in Brazil, South Africa and the UK. The UK drugmaker has tied up with Pune-based Serum Institute of India to provide 1 billion doses of ‘ChAdOx1 nCoV-19’ (also known as AZD1222) to middle and low-income countries once the vaccine receives approval by the authorities.

The Oxford vaccine candidate was developed by the researchers at the Jenner Institute of the Oxford University in a remarkable time frame of just 3 months. The potential vaccine candidate, which has shown encouraging results in its preliminary trials, was developed by genetically modifying the chimpanzee adenovirus (known to cause common cold in chimps), so that it no longer causes disease and combining it with the genetic sequence of the surface of the spike protein of the novel coronavirus.

Pune-based Serum Institute of India is planning to launch the Oxford vaccine, under the brand name ‘COVISHIELD’ in India and is currently seeking regulatory approvals from the DGCI. After the firm gets the go-ahead from the authorities, it will comment Phase I/II trials of AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine in India, from the next month itself.

As of now, the human trials are slated for August 2020 and will be conducted on 1600 volunteers, who are healthy and above the age of 18, for a randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity, as per a report published in PTI. The Pune-based SII has already submitted an application seeking approval from DGCI to begin last stage human trials of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford researchers.

Speaking about the pricing of Oxford University’s vaccine candidate, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla had said, “It is too early to comment on the vaccine’s price. However, we will keep it under ₹1,000 per dose.” After entering into a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, SII is aiming to produce at least 5 million doses every month for the first six months.

As of now, India has already crossed the 14 lakh mark of the coronavirus cases and is breaking new records of the number of positive cases reported every day. This is precisely the reason the world is waiting with bated breath for any vaccine to come into public circulation and help in containing the spread of the highly contagious virus.