India's Drug Regulator Clears Phase-1 Human Clinical Trial Of Antisera With Potential To Treat Covid-19

In a major development in the fight against COVID-19, India's drug regulator has approved the human clinical trials of the highly purified antisera for treatment of Covid-19 which has been developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration with Hyderabad-based Biological E, reports Economic Times.

Developed by injecting an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in horses, the potential Covid-19 treatment has received the permission of Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct Phase-1 human clinical trial.

The development was announced on Tuesday (6 October) by ICMR’s Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava.

Antisera are blood serum high in antibodies against specific antigens and are injected in humans to help kickstart the immune system to fight specific infections.

During the study phase, a total of ten healthy horses were immunised with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and after 21 days of immunisation, plasma samples were tested.

The results indicated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 targeting IgG antibodies. The pre-print version of the study has been posted on the Research Square platform.