PGI may begin recruitment for vaccine trials in 2 weeks

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22

The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) is expected to begin the process of recruiting healthy individuals for the Covid-19 vaccine trials in the next two weeks by issuing an advertisement.

ELIGIBILITY

• Volunteers need to be above the age of 18 and should not have contracted the Covid-19 infection. The PGI is planning to recruit volunteers from Chandigarh only so that they can be easily called to the institute for follow-up.
• The trials will be carried out on an OPD basis. The participants will not be required to be admitted.

An agreement between the PGI and the sponsors of the vaccine trials — Serum Institute of India (SII) and the Indian Council of Medical Education and Research (ICMR) — will be signed in the upcoming week.

The advertisement will contain the eligibility condition for volunteers.

Dr Madhu Gupta of PGI said: “We have received a clearance from the Institute Ethics Committee (IEC) and most likely, will begin the recruitment of volunteers next week by rolling out an official advertisement on the website of the PGI. The sponsors of the trial will virtually visit the trial site and sign an agreement with the institute.”

The volunteers need to be above 18 years and should not have contracted the Covid-19 infection. The PGI is planning to recruit volunteers from Chandigarh only so that they can be easily called to the institute for follow-up.

The trials will be carried out on an OPD basis. The participants will not be required

to be admitted.

Dr Jagat Ram, Director, PGI, said: “I have already started receiving overwhelming response from people who want to volunteer for the vaccine. The recruitment will be a smooth process.”

As part of the trial, the institute will assess immunogenicity, along with the safety of the vaccine. Over 300 volunteers will be recruited. The SII is conducting the phase 3 clinical trial for the adenovirus-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

The PGI is among the 17 sites across the country to participate in the second and third phases of human clinical trials of Covishield, the potential vaccine developed by the University of Oxford.

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