Vaccine / It has great potential: Adar as SII begins production of 1st batch of Covovax

Mumbai: The Serum Institute of India announced on Friday that it has started the production of the first batch of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, which will be locally manufactured under the brand name Covovax, calling it “a new milestone”.

“Excited to witness the first batch of Covovax (developed by @Novavax) being manufactured this week at our facility in Pune. The vaccine has great potential to protect our future generations below the age of 18. Trials are ongoing. Well done team @seruminstindia! (sic),” said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla in a Twitter post on Friday.

US biotechnology company Novavax’s protein-based vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, has demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, and 90.4% overall efficacy, in its Phase 3 trial.

The Centre, too, termed the vaccine efficacy trial promising.

“What we’re learning from data available in the public domain that this vaccine is very safe and highly effective,” said Dr VK Paul, member-health, Niti Aayog said earlier this month.

So far, three vaccines — Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, the SII’s Covishield and Russia’s Sputnik V — have been cleared by the Indian government.

Poonawalla earlier said the vaccine could be launched in India by September, subject to necessary regulatory clearances.