Due to the massive short supply of Paxlovid, demand for Indian generic versions has gone up through Chinese e-commerce platforms.
The expert committee sought more information from Serum Institute regarding the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Initial data has shown immunity triggered by the two mRNA vaccines -- Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna -- lasts for at least six months
The researchers from King's College London in the United Kingdom also found that most systemic side effects -- meaning side effects excluding where the injection took place -- peaked within the first 24 hours following vaccination and usually lasted 1-2 days.
Covaxin is being indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
India battles big pharma over cough syrup abuse, reducing supplies
"It has been decided that for approval of COVID-19 vaccines in India for restricted use in emergency situation which are already approved for restricted use by US Food Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency Japan or which are listed in WHO Emergency Use Listing and which are well established vaccines from the stand point that millions of individuals have already been vaccinated with the said vaccines, the requirement of conducting post approval bridging clinical trials and of testing every batch of vaccine by CDL, Kasauli can be exempted, if the vaccine batch/lot has been certified and released by National Control Laboratory of country of origin," it said.
Gennova has also got permission for phase-2 and 3 clinical trials for its lyophilised mRNA vaccine for injection from the subject expert committee advising the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation, reports Sohini Das.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
The WHO said the four current 'Variants of Concern' being monitored closely - Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta - are widespread and have been detected in all WHO regions.
Serum Institute has the capacity to make 250 million doses of Covishield monthly.
As the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 takes centrestage, vaccine makers in India are of the view that scaling up the existing vaccines to make them more effective is possible.
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, which had been formally tasked by the UK government last month with the process of clearance after the jab emerged "safe and effective" against the novel coronavirus in human trials, is expected to authorise the vaccine by December 28 or 29 after the final data is provided on Monday, 'The Daily Telegraph' quoted senior government sources as indicating.
Addressing a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Zydus Cadila, Sputnik V, Biological E and Gennova are other vaccines also in the pipeline which are in advanced clinical trials in India.
Australia's medicines and medical devices regulator on Monday formally recognised India's Covaxin, a vaccine against the coronavirus as the country's border was reopened for the first time in nearly 20 months.
Of the 4.10 crore to be shared through COVAX, 1.40 crore will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 1.60 crore to Asia.
Some vaccine frontrunners are in advanced stages of trial and could hit the market by early next year, making the task of securing "last mile connectivity" and ensuring that nothing goes wrong before the shot is administered more urgent.
'In the likelihood that Omicron is circulating, you have a much greater chance of getting infected now, than you did during the Age of Delta.'
No decision on granting indemnity to any foreign or Indian Covid vaccine-manufactures has been taken yet, the government said Friday, underlining these decisions are to be taken 'in the interest of nation and people'.
Bajaj Finance was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging around 9 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, L&T, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ONGC and Axis Bank. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Infosys, Nestle India, Sun Pharma and TCS closed in the red.
Earlier this week, AstraZeneca said it had paused the trials because of 'an unexplained illness' in a participant in the study.
'Better to prevent than to wait for evidence. Protection delayed can also mean protection denied'
"I realise that a lot of Indians who have taken Covishield are facing issues with travel to the EU, I assure everyone, I have taken this up at the highest levels and hope to resolve this matter soon, both with regulators and at a diplomatic level with countries," Poonawalla said in a tweet.
Not to say that India couldn't have handled the situation better, but on average, it didn't do anywhere near as badly as the naysayers make it out argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
Communications between the USTR and the world's most powerful pharmaceutical and trade lobbying groups reveal that many raised concerns about India's push to exempt Covid vaccines from intellectual property.
'A good 30 per cent of people will still get infected after getting the Covishield vaccine.'
The development comes after requests for indemnity and exemption from bridging trials have been made by Pfizer and Moderna to the Indian government.
Will syringe shortage puncture India's Covid vaccine plans?
The Omicron variant was first detected in India in Bengaluru with two people testing positive for it comprising a South African national of Indian origin and a doctor.
The Supreme Court Monday posed searching questions to the Centre on the COVID-19 vaccine procurement policy and need for mandatory registration on the CoWIN app for people to get vaccinated without keeping in mind the real 'digital India' situation, observing that the policy makers must have an ear to the ground.
The average rate of COVID-19 vaccination in the country has been 10.8 million per week. At that rate, it will take India till December 2024 to complete two billion doses.
The protection gained after being fully vaccinated with both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 wanes over time, a new UK study reported on Wednesday.
There were apprehensions in the SII about rival Bharat Biotech's 'indigenous' tag, opening up shortcuts for it. One senior person, who was very familiar with the sector, told me, 'The message has gone out from the very top. Somani (V G Somani -- drug controller general of India) has told me "Bharat ka karna hai".' A fascinating excerpt from Abantika Ghosh's Billions Under Lockdown: The Inside Story Of India's Fight Against COVID-19.
India's drug regulator Drugs Controller General of India has granted permission to Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Cipla to import Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use in the country, official sources said on Tuesday.
Apart from the 1.1 crore doses of Covishield being procured from the Serum Institute of India, 55 lakh doses of indigenously developed Covaxin were being obtained from Bharat Biotech, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press conference.
'Someone may have diabetes, but at what level the disease qualifies as a comorbid condition is something a doctor will decide upon and certify accordingly.'
'Whoever owns the best chip industry will be the Saudi Arabia of the era of data,' predicts Rajeev Srinivasan.
Facing accusations of delay in placing orders for vaccines, the government on Thursday defended its vaccine procurement policy saying it has been pursuing Pfizer, J&J and Moderna since mid-2020 for the earliest possible imports, and has even waived local trials for well-established foreign vaccine makers.
The Drugs Controller General of India has approved the manufacture of this Sars-CoV-2 spike protein recombinant nano-particle vaccine for 'examination, test, and analysis', reports Sohini Das.
'If you approached it with that level of aggression in 100 days, you would have vaccinated more than half of your country.' 'On a mass scale you will be able to eliminate that wave.'
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