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Oxford and SII's Second Phase of Trials for Coronavirus Vaccine Begin:- The Oxford University is joining hands with the Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII) to develop the vaccine for coronavirus. The vaccine is named Astrazeneca and the phase 2 clinical trials for the vaccine start today. The trials will start at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in Pune. SII partnered with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca to manufacture the coronavirus vaccine if the trials end up successful. The vaccine is developed by the University of Oxford. The testing includes four stages.

The first stage of trials are conducted on animals and the second stage happens to be the first phase of clinical trials on a small group of human beings. The second phase is tested across wider-sections of people. The last phase of clinical trials will have thousands of people given the dose of vaccine. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) said that they have given their nod for Serum Institute of India (SII) to conduct the second and third phases of human clinical trials for the Oxford vaccine. The permissions are granted on August 3rd.

The trials will be conducted across 17 cities of the country which also includes AIIMS, New Delhi. 1600 people above the age of 18 years will participate in the trials that start today. The first two phases of the trials have been extremely positive. There are speculations that the Oxford vaccine would be priced at Rs 225 in India per dose. Dr Vinod K. Paul, member of NITI Aayog told that is quite earlier to discuss about the price of the vaccination. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan told that the vaccine will be available for the public by the end of 2020 if everything goes well. The Oxford-Astrazeneca is said to be the most advanced one in all the trials across the globe to date.