Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday said that SII has this week begun manufacturing the first batch of Covovax, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc.
Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla in a tweet said the Novavax vaccine has “great potential to protect our future generations below the age of 18. Trials are ongoing.” US-based Novavax Inc has a vaccine manufacturing agreement with Serum Institute of India, which also manufactures the Covishield vaccine currently administered in the country.
Excited to witness the first batch of Covovax (developed by @Novavax) being manufactured this week at our facility in Pune. The vaccine has great potential to protect our future generations below the age of 18. Trials are ongoing. Well done team @seruminstindia! pic.twitter.com/K4YzY6o73A
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) June 25, 2021
Novavax’s vaccine showed a 90.4% overall efficacy in Phase-3 clinical trials. It is as effective as as two of the frontline vaccines being used in the US and European countries –Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which had efficacy rates of 91.3% and 90% in Phase 3 trials, respectively.
Clinical trials of Novavax are being conducted and are in an advanced stage of completion in India.
In August last year, the American vaccine maker, Novavax Inc, had announced a licence agreement with SII Pune for the development and commercialisation of NVX-CoV2373, its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, in low and middle-income countries and India.
“What we’re learning from data available in the public domain that this vaccine is very safe and highly effective,” said Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog said earlier this month.
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