Covovax India launch by September; trial for kids soon: SII
The Serum Institute of India (SII) is looking to launch the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the United States firm Novavax in India by September. The trials for the vaccine, called Covovax, are in the advanced stage of completion, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said. Earlier this week, Novavax announced that the vaccine had been found over 90% effective against COVID-19. Here are more details.
The trial for the vaccine in India is likely to conclude by November, Poonawalla was quoted as saying by CNBC-TV18. Novavax can apply for a vaccine license before its trial in India on the basis of data available from global trials, Poonawalla said. He said the firm is planning to start clinical trials of Covovax for children in July.
Novavax said in a statement on Monday that its vaccine had demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe COVID-19 infection and a 90.4% efficacy overall. The study had enrolled 29,960 participants across 119 sites in the US and Mexico to assess the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of the vaccine. It demonstrated 93% efficacy against predominant Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest, Novavax said.
NITI Aayog member Dr. VK Paul told reporters on Tuesday that the SII has been conducting bridging trials for Novavax in India. The data shows that the vaccine is safe and effective, he said, adding that the trials are in the advanced stage of completion. The vaccine will be manufactured by the SII in large quantities, he said.
Dr. Paul said, "The pace of vaccination should see a renewed energy from next week onwards when we will realign our efforts, state efforts, and effective scale-up at ground level is expected." "Teams both at the Centre and state are working on building new guidelines for high-speed coverage of the vaccination across the country," he added.
Novovax recently said that it has a "tiered" pricing scheme for lower-, upper-, and middle-income countries, comparable to most manufacturers. CEO Stanley C Erck said Monday, "Given that we've got a commitment of 1.1 billion doses with COVAX along with our partner Serum Institute (of India), a lot of our first doses are going to go into low- and middle-income countries, as they should."
