Zydus Cadila begins human trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D in 1,000 volunteers

Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Wednesday said it has started human clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D. In the phase of trials, the company will be enrolling over 1,000 subjects across multiple clinical study sites in India, it said in a regulatory filing. The adaptive phase I/ II human clinical trials of ZyCoV-D have commenced with the first human dosing, it said, adding that the adaptive phase I/II dose escalation, multi-centric study will assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine. Earlier this month, Zydus had received approval from domestic authorities to start human trials for its COVID-19 vaccine contender – the second Indian pharmaceutical firm to get such nod amid a surge in novel coronavirus infections worldwide. It got approval a few days after India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate COVAXIN, developed by city-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology, got the nod for human clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India. Shares of Cadila Healthcare, the listed entity of the group, were trading at Rs 356.50 apiece on BSE, up 0.81 per cent against their previous close.