Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has filed an application to Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for conducting a small-scale domestic trial of Novovax Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine, which has been determined to be highly effective in UK trial standing at 89.3 % efficacy. SII’s chief executive officer, Adar Poonawalla stated that his company is expecting to launch Covovax by June this year.
Novovax revealed on Thursday about its two-shot Covid-19 vaccine NVX-CoV2373, which has an overall efficiency of 89.3 % determined in the trial in Britain, but reports also suggest about it exhibiting less protetcion against the new variant which was first discovered in South Africa.
Novovax declared about their work on new vaccines which will be against the evolving strains in the beginning of January and are working on finalizing the ideal candidates in the upcoming days, after which clinical trial will be initiated in the next quarter. Stanley Erck, company’s president and CEO has stated, “NVX-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.”
Novovax’s vaccine is backed by US governent project known as Operation Warp Speed, and will be injecting the same molecules directly into the body to generate an immune response. Novovax has formalized a deal with SII regarding manufacturing of a minimum count of a billion doses which will be for the low and middle income countries along with India.
