Covovax trials begin in India, expected to be launched by September, informs Adar Ponawalla

NEW DELHI: Serum Institute of India CEO, Adar Ponawalla in a tweet informed that the trial for the new vaccine Covovax has been initiated in India. He also stated that the vaccine is expected to be launched by September this year.

"Covovax trials finally begin in India; the vaccine is made through a partnership with @Novavax and @SerumInstIndi. It has been tested against African and UK variants of #COVID19 and has an overall efficacy of 89%. Hope to launch by September 2021 (sic)!", he wrote in a tweet.

As informed by Ponawalla, the vaccine has been tested against African and UK variants of the Covid-19 and was found to be 89% effective. The new vaccine has been jointly developed with the American vaccine developer Novavax.

It needs to be mentioned here that Covovax is the second vaccine developed by the Serum Institute of India. Earlier, it has brought the first vaccine for Covid-19- Covishield, which was developed in collaboration with Oxford University and Astrazeneca. It was distributed all over India and several other countries.

As India has recently witnessed a surge in the Covid-19 positive cases, the country has ramped up the vaccination drive in the country. Moreover, it has temporarily stopped the export of the Covid vaccines in order to focus on domestic immunization.

The decision was taken as the demand for vaccines has arisen in the country, hence there will be no expansion of vaccine exports. However, as per reports, all commercial contracts and export commitments will be honoured and India will continue to help countries around the world to deal with the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday had announced that all those who are 45-years and above will be able to get vaccinated from April 1, this will be the third phase of the vaccination drive. The first phase of the vaccination drive in India was initiated on January 16, priority was given to health workers and frontline workers. In the second phase, the drive began on March 1, the vaccine was administered to those above 60 and above 45 with serious illness.

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