Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday said he is hopeful that Covovax, another Covid-19 vaccine being manufactured by his company in India, will be launched in October for adults and for children by the first quarter of 2022. He also thanked the government for all the support provided to Serum Institute and said the company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demand.
“By the first quarter of 2022, we will have a vaccine for kids”, he told the media following the meeting.
Poonawalla met Shah for almost half an hour, following which he asserted that there was “no financial crunch”.
“There is no financial crunch. The government is very supportive. We are very thankful to Modiji and the government for their support and for improving and helping us in our industry to scale up vaccine manufacturing. We are hoping that by October Covovax will be launched for adults but that is also up to the drug controller of India. It will be a two-dose vaccine. The one for children will be launched in the first quarter of 2022,” he said.
When asked about the pricing strategy, he remained non-commital. “We don’t know. At the time of launch, everybody will.”
SII has also applied for Emergency Use Authorization for Novavax to the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation today.
SII is set to start trials of Covovax, its Covid-19 vaccine (Novavax’s candidate), on children this month. The trials would cover 920 children, 460 each in the age group of 12-17 and 2-11 across 10 sites.
Two Indian vaccine makers — Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) and Zydus Cadila (ZyCoV-D) — have already begun the pediatric trials.
Covovax is said to have an efficacy of close to 90 percent but is yet to be approved for use anywhere.
An expert panel of the Central Drug Authority had last month recommended granting permission to SII for conducting phase 2/3 trials of Covovax on children aged 2 to 17 years with certain conditions.
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