BHUBANESWAR: Even as a teacher from West Bengal claimed to have received calls from Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to participate in the clinical trial of Covid vaccine in Odisha, faculty at Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital said the institute hasn’t selected any candidate so far.
IMS and SUM Hospital is the only medical institute in the State to be chosen as clinical trial site for first indigenous vaccine, derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune.
ICMR and Bharat Biotech are jointly working for the preclinical as well as clinical development of the vaccine.
Earlier, a section of media had reported that 30-year-old primary school teacher from West Bengal’s Durgapur Chiranjib Dhibar was selected as a clinical trial candidate. The reports claimed that he was expected to visit Bhubaneswar shortly.
However, the Principal Investigator at IMS and SUM hospital Prof Venkat Rao rubbished such claims. “It’s false news. He (the teacher) had called us sometime back. But there is a protocol to be followed. This is a confidential matter ethically. The candidate’s identity can’t be revealed in public domain. Till now, we have not given confirmation to anyone for conducting trial at our site,” Rao added.
Dhibar, as claimed by the institute, was one among the several callers who had been enquiring about the process of registering themselves for the trial. “A number of people are calling us (the institute). We have listed their names. We will follow the routine selection protocol,” the professor said. Sources revealed that the vaccine sponsors are in the process of finalising the protocols to be adopted for selection of candidates.
Meanwhile, Dhibar told TNIE that he had written to ICMR on April 27, expressing his wish to volunteer for the vaccine trial. “I first approached the local administration (at Durgapur). Then, I wrote to ICMR. Last Saturday, I received a call from an ICMR scientist who asked me to be prepared mentally. He told I could be asked to appear for the tests anytime,” Dhibar, who is a teacher at Kanksa Manikara Primary School, added.
He informed that he had received calls from the hospital in Bhubaneswar but the authorities concerned are yet to send him any schedule for conducting the tests.