KATHMANDU: In the race of vaccine candidates for coronavirus infection, the second indigenous vaccine developed in India from Zydus Cadila, a global healthcare company, has started human clinical trials. The vaccine candidate developed at its Vaccine Technology Centre in Ahmedabad, India, was found to be safe, immunogenic, well-tolerated in the pre-clinical toxicity studies. As per the company's statement, Zydus has initiated the Adaptive Phase I/ II human clinical trials of its plasmid DNA vaccine, ZyCoV-D. The trials will be enrolling over 1000 subjects across multiple clinical study sites in India. The manufacturing of clinical GMP batches of the vaccine candidate for the trials has been made. Chairman of Zydus Cadila, Pankaj R Patel noted that it is an important step in the fight against COVID-19 and acknowledged the support of National Biopharma Mission, BIRAC, Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India and regulatory agencies ICMR and DGCI in the development of ZyCoV-D vaccine candidate. In early July, Zydus had announced that ZyCoV-D had successfully completed the preclinical phase and had received permission from the Drug Controller General of India - Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to initiate Adaptive Phase I/II human clinical trials in India.