New Delhi (NVI): All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) has said that due process of scientific trials should be followed strictly and transparently for all Covid-19 candidate vaccines and treatment drugs, regardless of systems of medicine.
AIPSN, a network of 40 People’s science movements working in 25 states, has said that India must follow “transparent, reliable and scientific clinical trials protocols,” while developing the indigineous Covid vaccine.
It is pertinent to mention here that scientists working in the National Institute of Virology (NIV) under the ICMR and Hyderabad-based BBIL have developed an inactivated vaccine candidate, BBV152 COVID, using a virus strain isolated in NIV.
BBIL got approval for Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials on June 29 from the Central Drugs and Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) as part of the fast-tracking of the process even while pre-clinical animal trials are still underway.
According to the submission of BBIL with the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) also under ICMR, the enrolment for Phase 1 was to begin from July 13th and the duration of the trial covering all the three stages was to be 15 months. 12 hospitals with widely varying track-record and experience in vaccine trials have been selected for the purpose by ICMR in an entirely arbitrary and non-transparent manner.
-ARK
