- Serum Institute of India seeks emergency use authorization from the government for its vaccine covishield.
- Phase three trial running in India UK and Brazil
The moment of relief has finally come! After US pharmaceutical company Pfizer came out with a vaccine for coronavirus and sought approval from India for testing it out, another company has come up with its own vaccine.
The exciting news is the company is from India!
Serum Institute of India has introduced its own vaccine and is planning to distribute it throughout India taking the urgency and interest of the public into account.
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Pune based drug manufacturer Serum Institute of India has become the first Indian company to seek emergency use authorisation from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for its covid 19 vaccine – Covishield.
Under the at-risk manufacturing and stockpiling license acquired from the DCGI, Serum Institute of India has already manufactured around 40 million units of vaccine making it world’s largest vaccine producer by volume and
The CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla, confirmed the news through a tweet saying, “As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD. This will save countless lives, and I thank the Government of India and Sri@narendramodiji for their invaluable support,”
Who has SII collaborated with?
Considering the urgency of the vaccine, Serum Institute of India has joined hands with Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has cosponsored the phase-three clinical trial of Covishield which was carried out on Sunday by SII throughout the country. Oxford and AstraZeneca are also carrying out clinical studies in the UK and Brazil.
How effective is Covishield?
According to the data gathered from the four clinical studies, two in the UK and one each in Brazil and India, it looks like Covishield is extremely powerful against symptomatic as well as severe COVID-19 infections.
“In terms of safety, Covishield was well tolerated with respect to solicited adverse events and was not associated with an increased number of SAEs and deaths. A majority of solicited reactions were mild in severity and resolved without any sequelae. Therefore, Covishield is safe and well-tolerated and can be used effectively for the prevention of COVID-19 in the targeted population. Thus, the benefit to risk ratio strongly supports the widespread use of Covishield,” read the application submitted by SII.
This indigenous vaccine needs to be stored between two and eight degrees Celsius. It is also very necessary to provide the vaccine at an affordable price since it needs to go to the masses. SII is going to provide each dose of its covishield vaccine in 250 Rs.
Are there any other vaccines that are under development?
We had earlier reported that the United Kingdom has approved the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer. This vaccine which is about to roll out is 90% effective. On the other hand, US-based biotech firm, Moderna, has claimed that their vaccine is 94.5 percent effective against coronavirus.
Apart from international firms, another native firm based in Hyderabad Bharat Biotech company is also working on a vaccine named Covaxin along with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
With a native vaccine coming up, India is setting a great example in front of the world and proving that it is taking a step ahead in becoming ‘atma nirbhar’. But the distribution of the vaccine to each and every part of the country can be challenging.
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