Pune based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) which is manufacturing Covishiled in India is expecting to introduce another vaccine, Covavax, in the country by September, while it is planning to start clinical trials of the Novavax vaccine against Covid-19 for children in July.
Covavax is a version of US firm Novavax's COVID19 vaccine candidate and its clinical trials are in an advanced stage of completion in India.
On Monday, Novavax Inc, which has a vaccine production agreement with SII said that ts Covid vaccine candidate shows high effectiveness with 90.4% efficacy overall and also showed high ability against the primary spreading Covid strains.
Phase 3 trial of Novavax had around 30,000 participants in the U.S. and Mexico.
In a statement, the firm said that the vaccine candidate, 'NVX-CoV2373', had displayed 100 per cent shield against moderate and severe disease, 90.4 per cent efficacy overall and met the primary endpoint in its PREVENT-19 pivotal Phase 3 trial.
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The Indian government on Tuesday informed the Novavax covid vaccine efficacy data published by the US company against the infection is hopeful.
"What we are learning from the available data is that this vaccine is very safe and it is highly effective but what makes this vaccine relevant for today is the fact that this vaccine will be produced in India by Serum Institute," said NITI Aayog Member (Health) V K Paul.
Paul added that the preparatory work has already been reached by the Serum Institute of India and they are also carrying a bridging test which is in advanced stages of completion.
Earlier this week, Stanley Erck, Novavax’s chief executive officer, said that the firm applying for regulatory clearance globally, with much of the first available doses going to low- and middle-income countries.
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"I am also hoping that they will also start trials on children which is of special interest to all of us. The pace of vaccination should see a renewed energy from next week onwards when we will realign our efforts, state efforts and effective scale-up at ground level are expected," said Paul.