West Bengal likely to lose chance to conduct Phase II trial of Sputnik V

West Bengal will likely lose the chance to conduct Phase II clinical trial of Russian COVID-19 vaccine candidate Sputnik V because of the delay in grant of approval by the State government, a top official of an organisation involved in facilitating the exercise said on Sunday.

The trials were proposed to start at the State-run College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital (CMSDH) in North 24 Parganas district adjoining Kolkata later this week along with six other centres in different parts of the country.

“We are on the verge of losing Phase II trials of Sputnik V vaccine at the CMSDH because of the slow approach of the State Health Department in giving the approval. We had applied for the approval on November 4 and there is no response yet,” the head of business development at site management organisation CliniMed LifeSciences, Snehendu Koner, told PTI.