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India approves Bharat Biotech’s Covid vaccine for phase 2/3 trials on children

India approves Bharat Biotech’s Covid vaccine for phase 2/3 trials on children

INDIA'S drug regulator has granted permission for conducting phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine for those aged 2-18 years, the health ministry said today (13).

The trials will be conducted on 525 healthy volunteers and the vaccine will be given by intramuscular route in two doses on day 0 and day 28.


"The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), after careful examination, has accepted the recommendation of the subject expert committee and accorded permission to conduct the phase 2/3 clinical trials of Covaxin in the age group 2-18 years, to its manufacturer Bharat Biotech Ltd on May 12," the ministry said.

As a rapid regulatory response, the proposal was deliberated by the subject expert committee on Covid-19 on Tuesday (11). It recommended the grant of permission subject to certain conditions.

Covaxin, which has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is being used on adults in India's ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive.

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Sum Retreats women time back

A sudden health crisis made Suminder stop and focus on what women really need during important transitions in life

Suminder Pelaez

Sum Retreats is about giving women their time back, says entrepreneur

Highlights

  • Survived blood clot in brain when daughter was six months old.
  • First retreat limited to eight women in Marbella, Spain, October 2026.
  • No 5am yoga sessions or rigid schedules, includes wine and yacht excursions.
Growing up in a lively south Asian household full of unexpected guests, endless chai, and a belief that hospitality means always offering more, Suminder Pelaez learned early on that connection is built through shared meals and open doors.
Today, that same spirit of welcoming and abundance shapes her new venture, Sum Retreats, a collection of intimate luxury experiences for women navigating midlife.
"My mum and dad have literally been entertaining for as long as I know from when I was a child," Pelaez recalls.
"Even if my mum wasn't prepared for guests, she would start cooking. She would start making pakoras or the chai would come out. Everything was always done."

That instinct for hospitality runs deep. But it took a life-threatening health crisis to show Pelaez what truly matters. When her daughter was just six months old, Pelaez suffered a blood clot in the brain.

"The experience forced everything to stop," she says. The scare became a turning point, reshaping how she thought about time, priorities and what women really need during life's transitional seasons.

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