Mumbai institute to soon begin trials of BCG vaccine as treatment for Covid-19

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 4

The Haffkine Institute here will soon begin clinical trials of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine as a treatment for Covid-19.

According to the Maharashtra government, the Drug Control General of India has given permission for such trials to be conducted in the state. "We will begin trials immediately on around 35 patients," said Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, Secretary, Medical Education and Drugs Department of the Government of Maharashtra.

Initial trials will start at BJ Medical College in Pune, according the health department. While some of the participants in the trial will be those with moderate Covid-19 symptoms, others will be those with severe symptoms.

According to sources here, it’s the first time that the BCG vaccine used to inoculate newborns against tuberculosis, is being considered as a treatment for the Covid-19 virus. Earlier, researchers at the Haffkine Institute were considering it as a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Several frontline medical personnel in Maharashtra have already volunteered in a trial where they have been inoculated with the BCG vaccine.

The Maharashtra government's decision to consider the vaccine as treatment for the virus comes after it showed encouraging results after it was administered to some patients, according to Dr Mukherjee.

The BCG vaccine (Bacillus Calmette Guerin) is used to prevent meningitis. It was developed between 1908 and 1921, by French bacteriologists Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, who named the product Bacillus Calmette Guerin, or BCG.

The vaccine is considered relatively harmless since it is even administered on newborns.