Serum Institute to launch children’s vaccine in six months

The Serum Institute of India will come out with its children vaccine Covavax in six months, its chief executive officer (CEO) said Tuesday during the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) event. He added that currently, Covavax for the kids aged three and above is under trial. Covavax is the version of US-based Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

“There is enough data to show that the vaccines will work and protect children against the virus. Don’t know what will happen with Omicron. So far children have not been affected very badly,” Poonawala said.

“Yes, you should go and get your children vaccinated. There is no harm. These vaccines are safe and efficacious,” he further added.

So far, only one Covid vaccine, Zydus Healthcare’s ZyCoV-D, for children aged 12 years and above has been approved for emergency use in India. Besides this, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is yet to be approved by the Drug Controller General of India for emergency use authorisation in India.

Meanwhile, in the wake of Omicron, Poonawala again made a case for booster doses. He said, “if you boost with three doses, you will definitely increase the protection in your system. At least for 5-6 months. That is definitely beyond reasonable doubt that this will give better protection for 5-6 months.” He said giving booster shots will reduce the amount of hospitalisation if there are going to be as compared to delta variant.

For Omicron, Poonawala said a need to wait for one month to have enough data to say anything about its behaviour. He added that there is not enough evidence to believe that it would severely disrupt the system and a need for a lockdown. He also stated that the country is well prepared this time if any disruption happens due to this new variant of concern.

As Omicron is infectious and contagious, it is vital to take precautions, as healthcare experts urge. He further stated that Omicron might overtake the way the Delta variant of the Covid 19 has spread. Still, it is difficult to say how severely it will cause disruption and hospitalisations.

Meanwhile, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the Government on Tuesday said the Serum Institute of India’smonthly vaccine production capacity of Covishield is around 250-275 million doses per month. “Further, as communicated by Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Hyderabad, the current monthly vaccine production capacity of Covaxin is nearly 50-60 million doses a month. Both companies have achieved close to 90 per cent of present production capacity,” it added.

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