Elevenmonths after the first case of deadly coronavirus was detected in India, DrugController General of India (DCGI) V.G. Somani on Sunday approved SerumInstitute of India's 'Covishield' vaccine and Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' foremergency use, paving the way for their roll-out and administration tomillions.
Thisis a major relief for India which has the second highest number of infectionsin the world, after the US. The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30crore people in the first phase of drive in the next six to eight months.
Thevaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with twocrore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above theage of 50 years with co-morbidities.
TheSubject Expert Committee, tasked with vetting the vaccine proposals, hadrecommended Oxford-Astra Zeneca's 'Covishield' and Bharat Biotech's indigenous'Covaxin' for emergency use approval on January 1 and 2, respectively. Thefinal call was to be taken by the DCGI.
Theexpert panel recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of'Covaxin' in "public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trialmode, specially in the context of infection by mutant strains.
Pune-basedSerum Institute of India has partnered with Oxford-AstraZeneca for conductingclinical trials and manufacturing 'Covishield', while Bharat Biotech hascollaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for 'Covaxin'.
Serumand Bharat Biotech Pfizer had applied for the accelerated approval on December6 and 7, respectively.
TheUK and Argentina have already approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Morethan five crore doses of the vaccine have already been stockpiled by itsmanufacturer, Serum Institute of India.
Oxford-AstraZenecavaccine will play a major role in India's plan to vaccinate its populationagainst Covid-19 due to several factors -- low-cost, ease of storage andtransport.
SerumInstitute of India this week said it has a stockpiled 40-50 million doses ofits Covid-19 vaccine. India is likely to receive a majority of these 50 milliondoses.
Asfar as Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is concerned, it is India's first indigenousvaccine for coronavirus. The inactivated virus vaccine is being developed incollaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and theNational Institute of Virology (NIV).