BENGALURU (Reuters) – The maker of one of India’s top COVID-19 vaccine candidates said on Tuesday that he was hiring volunteers for an end-of-term test of the picture on the track, following reports of a shortage of co participants.
Bharat Biotech has signed up to 13,000 volunteers for a Phase 3 test, with support from the Indian government’s medical research group, and is moving towards the goal of 26,000, the company said. The trial began in mid-November at several sites across India.
Local news reports last week suggested that some of these test sites were far from meeting intended recruitment targets.
A study at the government-run medical institute AIIMS only signed about 200 participants, compared to a target of 1,500-2,000, a Reuters partner ANI reported last week, naming a doctor at the institute.
The bullet, known as COVAXIN, was evaluated in approximately 1,000 participants in early and mid-term trials.
“We are very pleased with the steady increase in participation,” Bharat Biotech Co-Managing Director Suchitra Ella said in a statement Tuesday.
With more than 10 million infections, India, the world’s largest vaccine-producing country, is the second worst hit by COVID-19 behind the United States, although disease growth has been slowing.
Its drug regulators are in talks with U.S. companies Pfizer and Moderna – whose COVID-19 vaccines have been approved in the United States – while other vaccine candidates are taking AstraZeneca bullets in trials.
Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar in Bengaluru; Edited by Anil D’Silva