Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical business Biological E Ltd on Monday announced that its coronavirus vaccine, Corbevax, has secured emergency use approval for children aged 12 to 18 years in India.
Corbevax is India’s third domestic vaccine.
Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Dr VG Somani approved Corbevax.
Till now only children of 15 years of age and above have been vaccinated in India.
According to government estimates, more than 76 million children aged 15 to 17 have been mostly vaccinated with Covaxin.
According to Dr. NK Arora, Chairman, India’s COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), the vaccine is safe and has higher immunogenicity and antibody levels than some other vector vaccines.
Compared to Omicron, the vaccine has shown “greater action”, according to the NTAGI chief.
According to sources, the Indian government has placed an order with Biologicals E for five crore doses of ‘Corbevax’ COVID-19 vaccine, each costing Rs 145.
Corbevax was approved for emergency use in late December for use in adults, but it has not yet been included in the national immunization program.
The Center had ordered 300 million Corbevax drugs on August 21 last year.
So far, India’s vaccination program has employed around 1.76 billion vaccine doses, of which about 84 percent is the domestic version of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot made by the Serum Institute of India.
The third wave of COVID-19 infections in India, caused by the Omicron coronavirus variety, has subsided substantially, with the government reporting 16,051 infections on Monday, up from 300,000 at the end of January.
(with inputs from agencies)