PIL Against Covaxin Trial On 2-18 Age Group: HC Seeks Centre

PIL against Covaxin trial: The Delhi High Court today heard a PIL demanding withdrawal of permission for conducting phase 2 and three trials for 2-18 years of ages that was granted to Covaxin makers recently. The permission was granted to Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech by the Drugs Controller General of India. Responding to the Public interest litigation (PIL), the Delhi HC has now sought Centre's stand on the matter.

A bench of judges constituting of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued a notice to the Centre and Bharat Biotech seeking their response on the petition by July 15.

The court however refused to pass any interim order prohibiting the permission granted for trials on May 12, as sought by petitioner Sanjeev Kumar.

According to the member of Niti Ayog (Health), Dr VK Paul the trials for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is most likely to begin in the upcoming 10-12 days. A total of 525 healthy volunteers will take part in the vaccine trial which will be administered intramuscular (medication is given by needle into the muscle) route in two doses. The doses will be given in a span of about a month- on day 0 and day 28.

Covaxin is the first Indian COVID-19 vaccine to be developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). It is already being used on adults above 18 years of age in the country in the ongoing vaccination drive.

The vaccine backed by ICMR has been found to be effective against most of the COVID-19 varients including the new strains of the coronavirus that has brought the second wave of the pandemic in India.

The same day that the vaccine was approved for the trials,the Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal appealed the government to cancel all the flight services with Singapore and called the new strain found there to be "very dangerous" for children. However the government of Singapore rejected Kejriwal's claims. The country's foreign minister said that "Politicians should stick to facts," further emphasising that there is no "Singapore strain".

Politicians should stick to facts!
There is no “Singapore variant”. https://t.co/SNJaF7wkwC https://t.co/pNgw4bkV4H

— Vivian Balakrishnan (@VivianBala) May 19, 2021

The Health Ministry of Singapore has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for its citizens between the age of 12 and 15 under the Pandemic Special Access Route for emergency therapeutic products.