Serum Institute Starts Covovax Production; Govt Expects 200 Mn Doses By Dec

Serum Institute of India (SII) said on Friday that production of the first batch of Covovax, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US-based Novavax, has started in Pune.

The Centre expects 200 million doses of Covovax to be available between August and December. India will allow entry of this vaccine once the USFDA approves it.

In a tweet, on its official handle, the company said, “A new milestone has been reached; this week we began our first batch of Covovax at our facility, here in Pune.”

The company has been stockpiling Covovax doses for some time now. This was in small volumes, SII clarified. The target monthly production of Covovax is 50 million. The company is expected to scale up to that level by the September quarter, claim sources.

Meanwhile, SII has also indicated that it plans to start clinical trials on children for Covovax in July.

The vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 has shown 100 per cent protection against moderate and severe disease as well as 90.4 per cent efficacy overall. It also met the primary endpoint in the PREVENT-19 phase 3 trials, the company had said in a statement.

Novavax will file regulatory authorisations in the third quarter (of the calendar year), it added. Upon regulatory approvals, the company said it is on track to reach manufacturing capacity of 100 million doses a month by the end of the third quarter and 150 million doses per month by the fourth quarter of 2021.

SII chief executive officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla had earlier said that shortage of raw material supplies from the US had affected the scale up plan for Covovax.

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