Report by Tanya:
Serum Institute of India (SII) has licensed the Oxford vaccine and markets it as COVISHIELD for low-and middle-income countries. Johnson & Johnson is interested in manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine in India, a government official told a news conference on Tuesday. India currently has no concern over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is being used in the country’s massive inoculation campaign, Vinod Kumar Paul said. He also said many more vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V, Cedilla Healthcare’s Zyon-D, and a Nova vax product, were in the queue.
“India is fortunate to have two great made-in-India vaccines, and as many as six-seven vaccines in the pipeline and perhaps many more,” he said, days after Pfizer Inc pulled an application seeking emergency-use authorization in the country. The US company had declined to immediately do a small local safety study for its shot and produce it in India, unlike the other vaccine developers.
The Indian government is currently using AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute and COVAXIN from Bharat Biotech. The two shots have been used in what India calls the world’s biggest immunisation programme to cover 300 million people by August, starting with healthcare and other workers to reach the elderly and those with existing conditions by March.
The regulator is expected to approve Russia’s Sputnik V and Cadila Healthcare’s ZyCov-D vaccines in the next few months.