Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij was administered a dose of Covaxin on Friday after he had earlier offered himself as the first volunteer for phase 3 clinical trials of the Indian-made coronavirus vaccine. He was administered a dose of Covaxin at 11 am at Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantt.
Anil Vij had earlier tweeted “I will be administered a trial dose of coronavirus vaccine #Covaxin, a Bharat Biotech product, tomorrow at 11 am at Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantt under the expert supervision of a team of doctors from PGI Rohtak and Health Department. I have volunteered to take the trial dose.”
He further tweeted, “Trial for the third phase of Covaxin, a coronavirus vaccine product of Bharat Biotech to start in Haryana on November 20. I have offered myself as the first volunteer to get vaccinated.” With this, the phase 3 clinical trial for the coronavirus vaccine began on Friday in Haryana.
#WATCH Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij being administered a trial dose of #Covaxin, at a hospital in Ambala.
— ANI (@ANI) November 20, 2020
He had offered to be the first volunteer for the third phase trial of Covaxin, which started in the state today. pic.twitter.com/xKuXWLeFAB
Bharat Biotech, after successfully completing the interim analysis from the phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials of Covaxin in July had received the Drugs Controller General of India’s approval for phase 3 clinical trials. The trial has garnered over 26,000 participants across over 25 centers in India.
Covaxin is India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The vaccine company said in a statement that the indigenous, inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in a high containment facility.
Meanwhile, Covishield, another vaccine under trial in partnership with the ICMR and Serum Institute of India (SII) also completed enrollment for phase 3 clinical trials in India. The Serum Institute of India had issued in a statement that it is currently “conducting phase 2/3 trial of Covishield at 15 different centers across the country and has completed the enrolment of over 1600 participants.”