Covishiled was licensed for emergency use in India last month. (Archive)
Chennai / New Delhi:
The Madras High Court has sent a notice to the central government about a petition to declare the Serum Institute of India, Covishield’s coronavirus vaccine “unsafe”.
The petition was submitted by a 41-year-old man from Chennai who volunteered for the third phase of the Covid vaccine trial and was given a dose on October 1. He had alleged adverse effects from the vaccine trials, citing “loss of creativity and business.”
Covishield has been developed by the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, in partnership with the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. It was one of two vaccines approved by the Indian drug controller DCGI last month for emergency use; the other was Covaxin from Bharat Biotech. More than 1 crore of vaccine doses have been administered nationwide since January 16, government data shows.
In his petition, the Chennai man has requested a statement that Covishield “is not safe.” He has also asked for compensation of Rs 5 million.
When the allegations surfaced last year, the Serum Institute denied the volunteer’s claims. The vaccine maker had also threatened to sue him for 100 million rupees.
“The COVISHIELD vaccine is safe and immunogenic. The incident with the Chennai volunteer, while very unfortunate, was not induced in any way by the vaccine and the Serum Institute of India is sympathetic to the medical condition of the volunteer,” said Serum Institute in its statement at that time. . He also defended his legal notice to the volunteer, saying he wanted to “safeguard the reputation of the company that is being unfairly defamed.”
The vaccine volunteer’s wife, who is a marketing professional, had denied the allegation that there was any reason in her legal notice to the vaccine manufacturer in November. “We could have sold our silence, we could have sent an ad and won something … But our hearts would not let us do that,” the woman told NDTV by phone from Chennai.
“My husband has lost his creativity and confidence after being vaccinated. Our goal is not compensation. The public should know.”
Last month, the DCGI had claimed that both vaccines are “110 percent” safe. “We will never approve anything if there is the slightest safety issue. The vaccines are 110% safe. Some side effects such as mild fever, pain and allergy are common to all vaccines,” said Indian Comptroller General of Drugs VG Somani.
“India took 34 days to achieve the historic feat of 1 crore of vaccines, the second fastest in the world,” the Health Ministry said today in a statement.
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