BENGALURU: Dr K Sudhakar, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, said that Rs 300 crore have been kept aside for the vaccine trails and free of cost treatment of COVID-19 patients. Karnataka began the phase-3 trails of COVAXIN vaccine by Bharat Biotech at Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (VIMSRC). The trails are also being held at JeevanRekha Hospital, Belagavi. The trails are done in collaboration with Clintrac International with around 1,000 volunteers to administer the vaccine in two doses.
Dr D V Chalapathy, co-investigator of the trails, said that the two doses will be given 28 days apart to the volunteers after inspecting their health status. They should be above 18 years of age and should not have any prior exposure to COVID-19 and should not have immuno-deficiencies like cancer, he added.
The result of the trails will be submitted to the Drugs Controller General of India and Indian Council for Medical Research for review. K M Srinivas Murthy, Director, VIMSRC, said that Bharat Biotech was instrumental in manufacturing vaccines for other diseasessuch as H1N1, SARS, Hepatitis and Polio. DrSudhakar said that vaccination trails are being conductedacross 12 states in 25 centres and a total of almost 26,000 people will beadministered the vaccine.