File image for representation. , Photo credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Official sources said on Wednesday that the Serum Institute of India has written to the Union health ministry seeking inclusion of its COVID vaccine Covovax in the CoWIN portal as asymmetric booster dose for adults.
He said the letter was written by Prakash Kumar Singh, director of government and regulatory affairs at the Serum Institute of India (SII).
A meeting of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) is likely to be held soon to take a decision on the matter.
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on January 16 approved the market authorization for Covax for people who have been given two doses of Covishield or Covaxin.
Its approval was based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
DCGI approves Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in adults on December 28, 2021; in the age group 12-17 on March 9, 2022; And also in children aged seven to 11 on 28 June last year, subject to certain conditions.
Covax is manufactured through technology transfer from Novavax.
It has been approved for conditional marketing authorization by the European Medicines Agency and was granted an emergency-use list by the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 17, 2021.
In August 2020, US-based vaccine manufacturer Novavax Inc. had previously announced a license agreement with SII for the development and commercialization of NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in India and low-middle-income countries. Is.