Arushi Bidhuri
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What seemed like a never-ending plea has finally been put to rest with the new vaccines. Thanks to the scientists working endlessly, we finally have many vaccinations available in the market against the novel coronavirus. India too is not behind in the race of COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, the country has regulated two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Covishield, is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer. After Covishield, the pharmaceutical giant is all set to launch Covavax by June this year, suggests media reports. The new vaccine shall be launched under the brand name of Covavax, which SII is manufacturing in partnership with Novovax.
SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Saturday that its partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with Novavax has shown excellent efficacy results. He further stated that the company has applied for starting trials in India, which awaits permission from the DCGI.
US-based biotechnology company Novavax announced on Friday that its COVID-19 vaccine was 89.3 per cent effective against the coronavirus. The trials assessed the efficacy of the vaccine NVX-CoV2373 during a period with high transmission and with a new UK variant strain of the virus emerging and circulating widely.
"NYX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, collaborators, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as quickly as possible," said Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax, said in a statement on Friday.
The US-based company announced its tie-up with SII to produce 2 billion doses of the vaccine last year.
The biotech company also announced that the South Africa Phase 2b clinical trial showed high efficacy. It showed 60 per cent efficacy for the prevention of mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 diseases, which was observed in the 94 per cent of the study population that was HIV-negative. Experts opine that the efficacy results against COVID-19 illness in vaccinated individuals shows that it will prevent illness against the dangerous variant lurking in South Africa and the world.
In the UK Phase 3 clinical trial, the vaccine showed the efficacy of 89.3 per cent against the UK variant. The trial was based on the first occurrence of PCR-confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 with onset at least 7 days after the second study vaccination in serologically negative adult participants at baseline. The first interim analysis was based on 62 cases, of which 61 were mild or moderate cases, only 1 was severe.
(with inputs from IANS)