NEW DELHI: Serum Institute of India has written to the Union Ministry seeking inclusion of its Covid jab ‘Covovax’ in CoWIN portal.
In the letter written by Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government, and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India (SII), the urge was to permit the use of ‘Covovax’ as a heterologous booster dose for adults who have been administered 2 doses of either Covaxin or Covishield.
It was on January 16th, the DGCI considered Covovax as a heterologous booster dose for adults who have been administered two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin. The approval stemmed from a recommendation by the subject expert committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
The DCGI approved Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in adults on December 28, 2021, in the 12-17 age group on March 9, 2022, and also in children aged seven to 11 years on June 28 last year subject to certain conditions.
Covovax is manufactured through technology transfer from Novavax. Novovax in 2020, announced a license agreement with the SII for the development and commercialization of NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in India and low-and-middle-income countries.