In a major development, India’s drug regulator approved two COVID-19 vaccines for restricted emergency use in the country. Oxford’s Covishield, which is manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech have been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). While making the big announcement, DCGI’s Dr VG Somani said, “Serum and Bharat Biotech vaccines have to be administered in two doses. All the three vaccines have to be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius.”
The ‘Covishield’ vaccine, developed by University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is being produced in the country by the Serum Institute. Bharat Biotech has developed ‘Covaxin’ – India’s first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19. This came a day after the COVID-19 Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) reportedly recommended grating emergency use authorisation for the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech. On January 1, the SEC had given a similar conditional use recommendation for the Serum Institute of India (SII)’s vaccine. Both recommendations were “subject to certain regulatory conditions”. The expert committee had also recommended speeding up the process of considering indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidates being developed by SII, Bharat Biotech and Cadilla Healthcare.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the approval a decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight, and congratulated scientists and innovators. He said, “The DCGI granting approval to vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech accelerates the road to COVID-free nation.” Invoking ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, PM Modi said it would make every Indian proud that two vaccines given emergency use approval are made in India. The approval is expected to kick off one of the world’s biggest vaccination drives in coming days in the country of 1.3 billion people.
