Visakhapatnam: Volunteer enrolment for Covishield begins

VISAKHAPATNAM: The human trial of Oxford-Astra Zeneca Covishield vaccine has got the green signal from the state government, following which volunteer enrolment process has commenced at King George Hospital. It may be recalled that clinical trial of Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin at KGH, being developed by Bharat Biotech, did not get the government’s approval.
Conducted by Serum Institute of India at 17 sites across India, the phase three human clinical trial of the vaccine at KGH will require at least 100 volunteers and will continue for six months.
“We enrolled 10 volunteers on Friday. We have taken their blood samples and both RT-PCR and antibody test would be done. As per rule, volunteers should be above 18 years of age and should not have been infected by the virus, nor should there be development of antibodies in the blood. Only then can they qualify for human clinical trial,” KGH superintendent Dr P V Sudhakar, who is also the Covid-19 special officer for north-coastal AP, told TOI.
The clinical trial of Oxford vaccine has not shown any adverse side-effects on volunteers in India so far. “Recruited volunteers would be given the first shot on day one and another shot on the 29th day,” he added.
Meanwhile, KGH has completed drug trials on nine patient volunteers for 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (C6H12O5) or 2-DG glucose molecule without any side-effects. Earlier, 2-DG had been successfully used in certain types of cancer treatment by inhibiting glucose supply to the cells.
Like cancer cells, viruses like SARS-CoV-2 cannot live and multiply if glucose supply to the cells is interrupted. KGH has submitted its report and subjects’ blood samples to DRDO, which developed the drug. The final report on the outcome of the trial is yet to be announced.