Coronavirus vaccine: Doctor, PhD candidate get first shots as Oxford trials start in Pune

Oxford Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccine Trial: One of the volunteers was a 48-year-old gynaecologist at a private hospital in Pune who had also volunteered 10 years ago for clinical trials for a vaccine against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. Two male volunteers at Pune’s Bharati Hospital became the first to be injected as phase 2/3 clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate began in India on Wednesday. One of the volunteers was a 48-year-old gynaecologist at a private hospital in Pune who had also volunteered 10 years ago for clinical trials for a vaccine against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. The other — the first volunteer to be injected with the candidate that has been named Covishield in India — is a 32-year-old doctoral candidate in statistics who works for a private company in the city. A total 1,600 volunteers will be part of the study at multiple trial sites. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the national drug regulator, had on Aug...