Madras HC issues notice to Centre on plea to declare Covishield 'unsafe'

The petition was filed by a 41-year-old man from Chennai who was a volunteer for the third phase of the Covid vaccine trial and was administered a dose of Covishield on Oct 1.

He had alleged adverse effects from the vaccine trials, claiming "loss of creativity and business", said reports.

Covishield has been developed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India in partnership with Oxford University and the British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca.

It is one of the two indigenous vaccines that has been cleared by India's drug controller for emergency use. The other vaccine approved for the same in Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

More than 1 crore doses of both vaccines have been administered across the country since Jan 16, the government data stated.

In his plea, the Chennai man has sought a declaration that Covishield "is not safe". He has also asked to compensate him with Rs. 5 crore.

Last year when the allegations had surfaced, the Serum Institute had denied the claims by the volunteer and had even threatened to sue him for Rs. 100 crore.

"The COVISHIELD vaccine is safe and immunogenic. The incident with the Chennai volunteer though highly unfortunate was in no way induced by the vaccine and Serum Institute of India is sympathetic with the volunteer's medical condition," Serum Institute had said in its statement at the time.

It also sent a legal notice to the volunteer, saying it wanted to "safeguard the reputation of the company which is being unfairly maligned."

Last month, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had assured that both the vaccines are "110 per cent" safe.

"We'll never approve anything if there is slightest of safety concern. The vaccines are 110 per cent safe. Some side effects like mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine," DCGI VG Somani had said.