Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, may soon launch another vaccine for Covid-19 as its CEO Adar Poonawalla said January 30 that the company has applied to start the trials Covovax.
“Our partnership for a COVID-19 vaccine with Novavax has also published excellent efficacy results. We have also applied to start trials in India. Hope to launch COVOVAX by June 2021!,” Poonawalla tweeted.
Serum Institute is already supplying Covid-19 vaccine Covishield in large numbers. Hyderabad-based firm Bharat Biotech is supplying another vaccine Covaxin. If Serum Institute gets the approval, Covovax would become third vaccine to be available in India.
Serum’s partner Novavax said on January 28 that Covovax vaccine has demonstrated 89.3% efficacy in UK Phase 3 trial. The study assessed efficacy during a period with high transmission and with a new UK variant strain of the virus emerging and circulating widely.
India started its Covid-19 vaccination program on January 16 and over 37 lakh healthcare workers have been vaccinated so far. India is the fastest country to reach not only the one million target but also two million and three million marks in Covid-19 vaccination.
India’s total active caseload has dropped to less than 1.7 lakh and it is now less than 1.6% of the country’s total positive cases.
