Serum Institute Applies For Emergency Approval For Made In India Covishield Vaccine
As of now, Serum Institute of India has manufactured over 40 million doses of its Covishied vaccine under the ¡®at-risk manufacturing and stockpiling license¡¯ obtained from the Indian drug regulator.
Ever since we¡¯ve seen the UK government approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech¡¯s COVID-19 vaccine for its citizens, people around the world have been wanting to know when will their nation be getting the vaccine to take down the novel coronavirus and bring their lives back to normal.
And now, it looks like India could soon be next on the list.
Twitter: Adar Poonawala
Serum Institute of India has now sought approval for emergency use authorisation from the Indian drug regulator for its Covishield vaccine on the grounds of public interest at large as well as the ongoing pandemic. This means, if permitted, the vaccine can start rolling out to citizens who really need it as it has cleared the minimum threshold for being safe for use.
In case you didn¡¯t know, Serum Institute¡¯s Covishied vaccine is the same vaccine that¡¯s being developed by Oxford-Astrazeneca which in its trials reported that it is 70 percent effective against the novel coronavirus, whereas the competition is able to receive up to 95 percent of effectiveness.
However, last week, AstraZeneca revealed that due to some error in its testing, the results turned out lower than expected and that it will conduct another small trial to get an accurate effectiveness rating.
Also, just last week, the vaccine came under heavy scrutiny in India after a trial volunteer in Chennai claimed that the vaccine caused neurological damage post getting shot. However, later Drug Controller General of India ruled out these claims stating that the illness was linked to other issues and wasn¡¯t due to the vaccine.
As of now, Serum Institute of India has manufactured over 40 million doses of its Covishied vaccine under the ¡®at-risk manufacturing and stockpiling license¡¯ obtained from the Indian drug regulator.
Reuters
Even though SII has promised that the first priority will be given to Indian citizens, SII will also be responsible for shipping the vaccine to other nations like Bangladesh and others in Africa.
SII CEO, Adar Poonawala also recently said in a statement, that SII is expected to produce 10 crore doses by February. However, the number of doses to be provided to India from that batch still remains undecided.
Emergency Approval For Covishield VaccineSerum Institute Seeks Emergency Approval For Covishield Vaccine
