PUDUCHERRY: JIPMER has established a research unit to undertake clinical trials of new COVID-19 vaccines that are currently in the development stage. According to a JIPMER release, this project is funded by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), an arm of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, through its ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’ programme.
Currently, six COVID vaccines have received emergency use authorisation in India. However, there is a clear need to develop more COVID vaccines, not only to meet the global supply-demand gap, but also for improved features, such as greater effectiveness, fewer side effects, longer duration of protection, need for fewer doses (i.e. single dose), alternative routes of administration such as nasal spray or drops, and applicability to age groups where the current vaccines have not been shown to be safe and effective.
Also, newer vaccines may be required in future if and when newer variants of the virus causing COVID emerge. Thus, efforts to develop new COVID vaccines are going on worldwide, with more than 120 vaccines currently being in various phases of clinical development. As new vaccines are developed, these will need to undergo clinical trials, and the COVID Vaccine Trials Unit at JIPMER will play a role in this regard.
To ensure that clinical trials on new vaccines as they become available can be completed quickly, the COVID Vaccine Trials Unit at JIPMER is preparing an advance contact list of persons who may be interested to participate in them.
In the nearly two-year period since the COVID pandemic began, the public at large has played a great role by adhering to the social distancing norms and precautions and by adopting vaccination in a major way. Each one can help the country and its citizens further by volunteering to enrol in trials on new COVID vaccines, said JIPMER. This includes those who have previously had COVID-19 or have already taken one or more doses of COVID vaccines, since some of the trials may include booster doses, said the release.
Further information is available here.