New Delhi: India's attempt to bring the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by August 15, is facing a roadblock as only five clinical sites out of 12 have got the approval from the ethics committees as of now.
According to reports, the approval to seven more clinical sites are yet to be given by the concerned ethics committees. Interestingly, ethics committees of AIIMS and Visakhapatnam-based King George Hospital are hesitant in giving approval for the clinical trials, after they found discrepancies in the protocol submitted for trials.
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The trials cannot start without the approval of the ethics committees. Five ethics committee including Gillurkar Hospital Ethics committee (Nagpur), Institutional Ethics Committee, (AIIMS-Patna), Institutional Ethics Committee, (IMS & SUM Hospital-Odisha), Institutional Ethics Committee, SRM College Hospital and Research Centre (Tamil Nadu) and NIMS Institutional Ethics Committee (Hyderabad) are still reviewing the protocol.
Sources told ETV Bharat that these five ethics committee are evaluating the total design. The absence of the child assessment document in the protocol may delay the trial further. The phase I and II trial will have volunteers between the age group of 12-65.
Read: Aug 15 target for COVID-19 vaccine launch 'unfeasible', claims Indian Academy of Sciences
