Mumbai, Oct 12: Pune-based National Aids Research Institute (Nari) would carry out, by the end of this year or early next year, the country's first HIV/Aids 'candidate' vaccine phase-I clinical trial on healthy human volunteers to establish its safety. The first Indian strain of the modified MVA-HIV subtype C vaccine will undergo clinical trial with three different doses at two months interval, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr N K Ganguly told a workshop for science writers in New Delhi. The Drug Controller of India and the ethical committee is expected to give the clearance within next couple of months, he said, adding the trial would be conducted by Nari on 10 healthy human volunteers and three more persons would be on placebo (control) dose.
The candidate vaccine will be a promising Aids preventive vaccine for the high risk population in the country if developed in the next five years, he said. The programme is supported by the union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and the Maharashtra Government.
ICMR will be funding the entire trial upto phase III at a cost of Rs 15 crore, Ganguly said. National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) would later transfer the technology to a company for mass manufacture, for which it has already shortlisted three companies.
After the site visit, one of them will be chosen, Ganguly added.
Bureau Report