COVID-19 vaccine: Govt permits export of 7 cr Covovax doses to Australia, 2 others

Government has permitted the export of 7 crore doses of the Covovax COVID-19 vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by Novavax to Australia, Netherlands and New Zealand.

Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India (SII) Prakash Singh had submitted an application to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) seeking no objection to export the vaccine doses to foreign countries, as per an official source. “After evaluation, the DCGI office gave no objection to export 7 crore doses of Covovax to Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand,” the source was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approved Covovax along with Corbevax and Molnupiravir earlier this week. The DGCI office had granted SII the permission to manufacture and stock Covovax in May this year. The Adar Poonawalla-helmed firm has manufactured and stockpiled the vaccine doses based on the DCGI approval.

Covovax is a two-dose, intramuscular vaccine administered at an interval of 21 days. The SII-Novavax vaccine is stored a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius and presented as 0.5 ml (single dose) and 5 ml (10 doses) vial pack, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Meanwhile, top virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said that Covovax would be a better booster for those who were administered Covishield jabs than another dose of the same vaccine according to the available data. “Data available at this time suggests that of the vaccines approved in India, Covovax would be a better booster in Covishield-vaccinated people than another dose of Covishield,” Dr Jameel said.

(With agency inputs)

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