Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday announced that he is hopeful that Covovax, another COVID-19 vaccine being manufactured by his company in India, will be launched in the month of October for adults and for children by the first quarter of 2022.
He said the company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demands and thanked the government for the support it has provided to Serum Institute. Poonawalla met Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament and the meeting between the two lasted for 30 minutes.
“The government is helping us and we are facing no financial crunch. We are thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all the cooperation and support,” Poonawala told after his meeting.
When asked about vaccines for kids, he said, “The Covovax vaccine for kids will be launched in the first quarter of the next year most likely in January-February.”
Covovax will be launched in October for adults Poonawala is Hopeful, depending on DCGI approvals. He stated, it will be a two-dose vaccine and the price will be decided at the time of the launch. He said the present capacity is 130 million doses per month and they will always try to increase it further and the vaccine is being manufactured and supplied by the Serum Instituted in India under a licensing agreement with Oxford and AstraZeneca.
Poonawalla also met Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya earlier in the day. It was later tweeted by the minister that he had a fruitful discussion on the supply of the Covishield vaccine with Poonawalla.
“I appreciated their role in mitigating #COVID19 & assured continued Government support in ramping up vaccine production,” Mandaviya said.
According to official sources, earlier this month, an expert panel of India’s Central Drug Authority granted permission to Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2/3 trials of Covovax on children aged 2 to 17 years with certain conditions.
The trials would cover 920 children, 460 each in the age group of 12-17 and 2-11 across 10 sites.
The Pune-based pharmaceutical company had submitted a revised protocol for inclusion of pediatric cohort in the ongoing Covovax phase 2 and 3 observer-blind, randomised, controlled study in Indian adults aged 18 years and above to determine the safety and immunogenicity of the jab.
SII Director (government and regulatory affairs) Prakash Kumar Singh and director Dr Prasad Kulkarni in the revised application, had stated that globally, all adults aged 18 and above are being immunized and after this population is protected against COVID-l9, children will remain the most susceptible group.
Meanwhile, currently, only those who are 18 or above are eligible for a vaccination against the COVID-19.
