Pune: The level of high vaccination and antibodies from previous Covid infections in a piece of population make it more difficult for hospitals to get volunteers for clinical trials of new vaccines and who will come in India, the hospital site told TII.
The hospital conducted a Covid vaccine testing told Ti that the main exclusion criteria for experimental volunteers were the history of Covid-19 infection within three months of filtering or volunteers after receiving a vaccine to prevent infection.
Maharashtra Data Department of Public Health revealed that more than 98% of the population in Mumbai and more than 93% in Pune had received at least one dose vaccine.
Institutions participating in various clinical trials, such as Corbevax, Covovax and the first Indian MRNA vaccine against Covid, HGCO19, told TOI that the difficulty in getting a Cowin Certificate in the past was a problem with experimental volunteers.
Dr.
Sidram K Raut, Noble Director of the Hospital, one of the trial sites for the HGCO19 vaccine MRNA, told Tii, “because of the lack of trial volunteer after the increase in vaccination in the population, the trial sponsor allowed us to recruit volunteers who have covid antibodies in their serum .
However, 90 days must be passed after Covid infection for the participant to qualify.
” He said, “Those who have taken Covid vaccines also do not qualify for the trial.
We recently recruited 73 volunteers for the trial of HGCO19 Phase II on our site.
Get this difficult number.
Some volunteers are willing both vaccinated or have antibodies from Covid infection recently.
We have to look for volunteers in the inner circle or connected to the hospital staff and authorities.
” Until last year, Dr.
Raut said, getting volunteers for a new vaccine under the trial was not a problem.
The main researcher from the HGCO19 vaccine trial at another hospital in Pune District to TII, “in the trial stage III vaccine, we need to register 400 volunteers on our site.
But getting 400 non-vaccinated people became very difficult because almost all in Pune had received at least one dose of vaccine.
We are now trying to get volunteers from rural areas where vaccination rates are relatively lower than in urban hubs.
” Dr.
Akash Khobragade, the main researcher of the Corbevax trial at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Hospital in Mumbai, said Toi, “Before the creature was registered in court, volunteers were filtered for their immunogenicity – to examine past Covid infections that they did not realize.
If they test positive for antibodies, they cannot be included in this study.
” He said, “In the last phase III Corbevax our experiment, we have filtered almost 1,200 volunteers and can finally get only 207 who eligible to participate in the trial.
This means that almost 1,000 volunteers have antibodies both from past infections or vaccinations.
Many sites have faced the deficiency of volunteers who qualify in most of the new clinical trials in the new vaccine.
” An official from TN Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital, who conducted Covovax trials in children, however, were quoted by other reasons for scarcity on volunteers was willing.
He said, “We did not witness the response from children to the trial.
Afraid of Covid seems to have gone now.
With the school opening, we think that parents will be interested in getting their children vaccinated but somehow, the response has been poor.
Also, vaccines like Zycov-D and Covaxin are scheduled to be used for children in the near future.
Result of.
People feel that they will get their children inoculated as part of the government drive.
” The official said, “Until now, we are children recruiting in groups of 12-17 age.
There were 460 children to be recruited on 10 sites from this age group for Covovax trials.
But the recruitment process has slowed due to a low response from volunteers.
A small number of children have not been registered to complete the target.
“