Mumbai: KEM to start screening participants for vaccine trial from today

KEM hospital is set to start screening candidates for the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine trial from Wednesday. Dean Dr Hemant Deshmukh said they got the ethics committee approval on Tuesday. “We are looking at including 100 participants. Since the eligibility criteria is strict and only participants who have not been exposed to Covid-19 can be selected, we may have to filter several participants,” he said.

In Mumbai, KEM and Nair hospital are part of a countrywide multi-site trial for the vaccine. The vaccine trial had been halted globally after a participant reported an adverse event. Following inquiry the trial was restarted. The Oxford vaccine trial will cover 1,600 participants in India across 10-12 sites. Of them eight sites are in Maharashtra. The phase 2/3 trial is being handled by Serum Institute of India and will look at safety and efficacy of Covishield vaccine.