The Covovax vaccine will be approved as a booster dose against Covid-19 in the next 10 to 15 days, Serum Institute of India’s Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said on Sunday, reported PTI.
Covovax is a two-dose vaccine and can be stored at refrigerated temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius. It showed an overall efficacy of 90.4% in phase three trials.
The vaccine was developed by United States-based biotechnology company Novavax, and is manufactured in India by the Serum Institute.
“The efficacy of Covovax is better against the new Covid variants,” Poonawalla said on Sunday, according to the Hindustan Times. “And we are hopeful that the permission will be granted soon possibly in the next 10-15 days.” The Serum Institute CEO made the statement during an interaction with reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Bharati Vidyapeeth in Pune.
Poonawalla said that Covovax works better against the Omicron variant than the Covishield vaccine.
The Serum Institute had applied for market authorisation of Covovax as a booster dose for those over the age of 18 to the Drugs Controller General of India in December of last year, reported the Hindustan Times.
The Serum Institute also produces Oxford-AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine with the brand name Covishield. A majority of vaccine doses administered to citizens in India have been those of Covishield.
However, the company had stopped the production of Covishield in December 2021 after its stockpile had 200 million unused doses.
“The central government has enough stock with them of Covishield and therefore the manufacturing of Covishield right now has been stopped,” Poonawalla said on Sunday. “However, if the need arises, we will start manufacturing immediately.”
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