Covovax fifth vaccine to be launched in the country is the shot developed.

Likely to be the fifth vaccine to be launched in the country is the shot developed by the American vaccine-maker Novavax, known as Covovax in the country. It might get clearance for use in India between July and September. The vaccine would cost a “low single dollar” price per dose but is likely to be costlier than Covishield, the company’s CEO said in an exclusive interview.

Stanley Erck, the president and CEO of Novavax, said that while Covovax is known to work on Covid variants, the data of its effectiveness against the Delta variant is not known yet.

“We have conducted clinical trials that show that the vaccine works extraordinarily well in phase 3 trials in the UK. And in the US we are in the last stages of preparing all of the clinical data, the safety data, and now the manufacturing data that has to go into a licensing package. Our expectation is that the package will be complete very soon, certainly in the coming quarter,” Erck said.

“We have very high rates of efficacy when there are variants circulating, we had a 100 per cent protection against moderate and severe disease, and we were 93% protective against the variants that were circulating in our US trial. What we did not show is anything that gets Delta because Delta was not circulating during our trial. So we don’t have those data yet. So time will tell,” said the CEO.

“What we hope, based upon the data that we have against a variety of variances, is that we will have a significant amount of efficacy against Delta. I just can’t tell you what that number is yet, because we have not been in the trial where Delta has been circulated.” He further added, “So while we were running and getting clinical efficacy data, clinical safety data, we were way behind on manufacturing data. So we had to run fast to build that capability. In part that’s why we have partnered with Serum Institute – because they have those capabilities.” Stating about the delay of the launch he said, Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said the vaccine may be cleared for use in India between July and September, said, “So we’re getting there. It took a bit longer than we had hoped, but in the US and in the UK and in Europe and in India, all of those processes are coming together at roughly the same time.”

While Novavax has shown 90 per cent effectiveness against Covid, more data is needed on whether it will protect against the Delta variant or the ‘variant of concern’, whose fast-spreading mutation was detected in India and is driving fresh cases in parts of the world. Besides India, approvals are expected around the same time in Europe and UK for the vaccine.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi from Tuesday began the screening of children in the age group of 6 to 12 years for the clinical trials of Covaxin the indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine.

AIIMS Delhi has already completed the clinical trial for a single dose of Covaxin for children aged 12-18 age group.

The United States of America had in May approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12.

Pfizer’s shot is the first to be cleared in the United States for children 12 to 15.

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