Govt panel says no to Serum Institute's Covovax trial on children aged 2-17 years

An expert government panel has recommended against granting permission to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to conduct clinical trial of Covid-19 vaccine Covovax on children in the age group 2-7 years.

An expert panel on Wednesday recommended against granting permission to Pune's Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting the phase 2/3 trial of Covid-19 vaccine Covovax on children aged between two to 17 years, sources said. The SII had on Monday applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) seeking permission to conduct a trial of Covovax on 920 children, 460 each in the 12-17 and 2-11 age groups, at 10 sites, news agency PTI reported.