Zydus Cadila Starts Human Clinical Trials For Its Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate ZyCoV-D

Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila has started the phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate 'ZyCoV-D'.

Earlier this month, Zydus had received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials of company's plasmid DNA vaccine candidate for Covid-19.

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday (15 July), Zydus said that it will be enrolling over 1,000 subjects across multiple clinical study sites in India for the trials, reports The Hindu.

The company said that adaptive phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials of ZyCoV-D have commenced with the first human dosing. It added that the adaptive phase 1 and 2 dose escalation, multi-centric study will assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine.

Zydus's ZyCov-D is the second Indian Covid-19 vaccine candidate that received DCGI nod for phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.

Earlier in the last week of June, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had announced that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate 'Covaxin' received drug regulator's approval for clinical trials.

The phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials of the Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has also been initiated.

Bharat Biotech has developed the 'Covaxin' in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.