The Government on Tuesday said that healthcare and frontline workers who will be inoculated in the first phase of the vaccination drive against Covid-19 will have no option to choose from the two vaccines that have been given emergency use approval.
The vaccination drive is set to start from this Saturday.
The government has approved two vaccines – Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin, which has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech together with the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The Health Ministry further informed that four more vaccines, which are different stages, would soon hit the market after due regulatory clearance. As of now, the government has allowed emergency authorisation to – Covisheild and Covaxin.
However, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday announced that very soon vaccines from Zydus Cadila, Sputnik V, Biological E and Gennova would be in the Indian market.
Zydus Cadila’s vaccine candidate is known as ZyCov-D and is being prepared in Ahmedabad. Sputnik V is the Russian vaccine which is being prepared in India by Dr Reddy’s Lab. Dr Reddy’s on Monday announced the beginning of Phase 3 trials in Hyderabad.
Four vaccines which are in pipeline:
Zydus Cadila – ZyCov-D
Sputnik V – In Collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Lab
Biological E – In collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, US
Gennova’s Vaccines – Indigenous COVID-19 vaccine based on the messenger RNA platform
Union Health Secretary also informed that the Government of India has agreed to procure 110 lakh Covishield vaccine doses from Serum Institute of India (SII) at Rs 200/dose.
55 lakh doses of Covaxin will be procured from Bharat Biotech (BBIL), of which 38.5 lakh doses priced at Rs 295/dose, Rajesh Bhushan said.