India's Drug Regulator Clears Phase-1 Human Clinical Trial Of Antisera With Potential To Treat Covid-19

In a major development in the fight against COVID-19, India's drug regulator has approved the human clinical trials of the highly purified antisera for treatment of Covid-19 which has been developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration with Hyderabad-based Biological E, reports Economic Times.

Developed by injecting an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in horses, the potential Covid-19 treatment has received the permission of Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct Phase-1 human clinical trial.

The development was announced on Tuesday (6 October) by ICMR’s Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava.

During the study phase, a total of ten healthy horses were immunised with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and after 21 days of immunisation, plasma samples were tested.

The results indicated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 targeting IgG antibodies. The pre-print version of the study has been posted on the Research Square platform.