New Delhi:- SII (Serum Institute of India) has sought for emergency use of Covishield the first Indian-made covid-19 vaccine.
Adar Poonawalla CEO of Serum Institute of India tweeted “As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorization for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD. This will save countless lives, and I thank the Government of India and Sri @narendramodiji for their invaluable support,”.
As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD. This will save countless lives, and I thank the Government of India and Sri @narendramodi ji for their invaluable support.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) December 7, 2020
Covishieldis is a covid-19 vaccine that is developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca and will be manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII). Earlier, Pfizer had become the first company to apply for Emergency use authorization (EUA) in India and asked for approval to import the covid-19 vaccine in India. The united states and the United Kingdom are preparing for the vaccination process with the Pfizer vaccine.
At the end of November, SII had announced it will seek EUA for AstraZeneca and oxford Covid-19 vaccine in about two weeks.
Adar Poonawalla had stated SII is in the process of submitting the data for the clinical trials to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and will seek the Emergency use authorization (EUA).
Adar Poonawalla also stated there will be no delays in the AstraZeneca vaccine turn out as the trails are more than enough for establishing efficacy and will not affect the EUA in Europe as well as in India. As per reports, there was an error in dosage during trials which AstraZeneca is trying to correct. Adar Poonawalla also added, “What we might have to do is trials for under 18 candidates. That is way all vaccines go. You first have to establish safety for adults and then go for studies on the impact on children,”.
The other covid-19 vaccine where SII has tied, Adar Poonawalla said Novavax vaccine is two months behind AstraZeneca vaccine and the same process will be continued in the terms of trial and approvals of it.
Adar Poonawalla also said that the third vaccine, Codagenics is way behind in the process and will take a minimum of a year to reach the licensing stage. Codagenics vaccine is only in the first stage trials in the UK so it will take at least a year. Both the vaccines can be stored at the temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius which can be easily stored in India he added.
Serum Institute of India is currently manufacturing 50-10 million doses a month which will bill be increased to 100 million doses by the month of January and February.
