COVID-19 vaccine trials ongoing in India: Serum Institute

Serum Institute of India on Wednesday said its trials of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country were ongoing and had not faced any issues.

The statement came after AstraZeneca Plc stopped giving shots of its experimental coronavirus vaccine after a person participating in the studies got sick.

"We can't comment much on the UK trials," Serum Institute India (SII) said in a statement adding "as far as Indian trials are concerned, it is continuing and we have faced no issues at all." Serum Institute had entered into a manufacturing partnership with AstraZeneca to produce and supply 1 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University.

The Indian firm is doing the clinical trials of AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate in India.

Last month, the Drug Controller General of India had granted permission to the Pune-based SII to conduct phase two and three human clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

The pause by AstraZeneca stemmed from a standard review of the company's vaccine trials after one person developed an unexplained illness, the firm said in a statement.

The move was intended to give researchers time to examine safety data while maintaining the integrity of the trials, the British-Swedish company said.