IMS AND SUM HOSPITAL CHOSEN BY ICMR FOR INDIA’S FIRST COVID-19 VACCINE TRIAL

Bhubaneswar, July 2: The Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical
sciences of the SOA Deemed to be University here, has been chosen by the Indian Council for Medical
Research (ICMR) for undertaking human clinical trials of India’s first Covid-19 vaccine.
IMS and SUM Hospital, which is the only medical institute in Odisha to be chosen as a clinical trial site for the much awaited vaccine, is also among four such institutions in the state which will
undertake convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The ICMR has advised it to fast track all approvals related to the initiation of the clinical trial of the vaccine in view of the public health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Prof. E.Venkat
Rao, Professor, Community Medicine, in the hospital will be the Principal Investigator.

This is the first indigenous vaccine being developed by India and is derived from a strain of SARS-
CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and Bharat Biotech are jointly
working for the preclinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine. It has already received the
approval for Phase-I and Phase-II human trials by the Drug Controller General of India.
IMS and SUM Hospital, a 1600-bed teaching hospital with 40 departments, is among 13 medical
institutes in the country identified by ICMR to take up the clinical trial. The trial will commence after
approval of the Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) of the hospital. Convalescent plasma therapy
involves the use of antibodies from the blood of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to treat
other infected persons. Dr. Chandan Das, Professor in Medicine, will be in charge of the convalescent
plasma therapy in the hospital.
“We have the required equipment and trained manpower to commence convalescent plasma
therapy in our hospital immediately. We have the Post-Graduate Department of Transfusion Medicine
recognized by the Medical Council of India,” Dr. Girija Nandini Kanungo, Associate Professor in the
Department of Transfusion Medicine, said.
The institute is presently operating three stand-alone Covid-19 hospitals in the state at
Bhubaneswar, Kendrapara and Talcher where patients afflicted by coronavirus are being treated. The
decision to commence convalescent plasma therapy in the state was taken at a high-level meeting today
chaired by Odisha’s minister for health and family welfare, Mr. Naba Kishore Das which was attended, among others, by the SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mohapatra.