CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla stated that their
Covovax vaccine will be approved as a COVID-19 Booster dose in the
next 10 to 15 days. He further said that the vaccine is highly effective
against the Omicron variants of coronavirus.
Covovax is the indigenous version of a Covid vaccine developed by
Novovax Inc of USA and is being manufactured by the Serum Institute
of India under a licence from Novovax Inc. It is a recombinant protein
vaccine that uses spike proteins to acquaint the human body with how
to develop immunity against SARS-CoV-2.
With the World Health Organization (WHO) granting Covovax
emergency approval, a top Indian government scientist has
recommended that it be used as a booster shot to combat the
emerging omicron variant of coronavirus.
Covovax "induces a strong immune response and has an excellent
safety profile," according to Anurag Agrawal, one of the directors of
the government's genome sequencing monitoring agency INSACOG
(Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium).
An expert panel of the Central Drugs Regulatory Authority is expected
to decide whether to market SII's COVID-19 vaccine Covovax as a
heterologous booster dose for adults who have received two doses of
Covishield or Covaxin. The Central Drugs Standard Control
Organization's (CDSCO) Subject Expert Committee was scheduled to
meet on January 11. However, what was the outcome of the meeting
is not yet known.
In light of the escalating pandemic situation in some countries,
Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs
at the Serum Institute of India (SII), recently wrote a letter to the Drugs
Controller General of India (DCGI) requesting approval for Covovax as
a heterologous booster dose for adults. Covovax was approved by the
DCGI for limited use in emergency situations for adults on December
28, 2021, for those aged 12-17 on March 9, 2022, and for children
aged 7 to 11 on June 28, 2022, subject to certain conditions.
The SII manufactures Covovax using technology transferred from
Novavax. The European Medicines Agency has granted it conditional
marketing authorization. On December 17, 2021, the World Health
Organization (WHO) granted it emergency-use status. Novavax Inc.,
based in the United States, announced a licence agreement with the
SII in August 2020 for the development and commercialization of
NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in India and low-and-
middle-income countries.
SII also produces the Covishield vaccine, which has been widely used
in the Indian vaccination campaign.
How does Covovax function?
When nanoparticles are injected into the body, they attract the body's
immune cells, forcing them to respond quickly and strongly. The
nanoparticles are then carried by antigen-presenting cells, which rip
the spike protein apart and display the fragments on their surface.
This activates the body's B cells, which begin to produce antibodies.
When a real virus attempts to infect the system, the newly generated
antibodies 'remember' the virus's spike protein and become activated.
