India’s drug regulator will approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca on Friday for emergency use, according to the news agency. Reuters reported. The expert committee set up by Comptroller General of Drugs of India (DCGI) VG Somani to examine vaccine proposals, meeting for the second time this week, recommended emergency approval for Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. The Swedish-British pharmaceutical company signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India to produce 1 billion doses of its experimental vaccine for low- and middle-income countries.
Nicknamed Covishield in India, the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine showed an average efficacy of 70.4%, with no hospitalizations or serious illness, according to the data. The Serum Institute applied for an emergency use license for a version of the vaccine from the British manufacturer in India last month. He was previously asked by the expert committee to submit updated data after the UK regulator gave its approval to the original version of AstraZeneca.
Britain last week approved the emergency authorization of the COVID-19 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the country. The authorization is for two full doses administered four to 12 weeks apart, AstraZeneca said.
The vaccine is “virus-vectorized,” which means it is a version of a virus that normally infects chimpanzees and has been modified with a portion of COVID-19 called a “spike protein” to activate the immune system. Once in human cells, the vaccine should help stimulate the production of antibodies that recognize the virus.
Cheaper and easier to distribute than rival vaccines, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is by far the most important in the global fight against the novel coronavirus. Unlike the two messenger RNA vaccines from US firms Pfizer and Moderna, this vaccine could be kept at normal refrigerator temperatures of between two and eight degrees Celsius. The Moderna vaccine should be stored at -20 ° C, while the Pfizer / BioNTech product should be kept at -70 ° C. It will be priced at just $ 3 per dose.
The researchers stated that the vaccine protected against the disease in 62% of those who received two full doses and in 90% of those who initially received half the dose.
The world’s largest producer of vaccines, it has already stockpiled around 50 million doses, enough for 25 million people. India will be the first priority for the delivery of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, said Adar Poonawalla, executive director of the Serum Institute of India, mentioned above. “The COVID-19 vaccine will be initially distributed in India, then we will look at the COVAX countries that are mainly located in Africa. Our priority is the countries of India and COVAX,” Poonawalla said.
India’s Central Standard Medicines Control Organization (CDSCO) could also approve a locally developed vaccine by Bharat Biotech. Reuters reported. The Comptroller General of Drugs of India will make the final decision on the emergency approval of the coronavirus vaccine in India based on the recommendations of the expert committee.
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