The Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) has given its approval to the Serum Institute of India for emergency usage of the vaccine Covovax in the age group of 12-17 years.
This step was taken in light of gaining another power shield against the rapidly mutating COVID-19. The Subject Expert Committee discussed in detail the data from trials and submitted its recommendations to the DCGI for consideration for final approval.
With this, Covovax became the fourth vaccine to get approval from authorities to use on youngsters. Corbevax, licensed to a hyderabad based biopharmaceutical firm Biological E., has also been given EUA (emergency use authorisation). It was previously being used on children of 12 years and above. Now, the vaccine has been authorised for use in children of 5-12 years old too.
The government has procured 5 crore doses of Cobervax after EUA was given for usage of the vaccine in adults above 18 years. However, the vaccine has yet to be administered to adults.
It is a hard battle for Corbevax to make it in the market as nearly 97% of population have already been vaccinated once and 80% having received their second doses. However, the vaccine may run better now that the approval for adolescents EUA has come into effect for the jab.
At present, only Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been under clean chit for usage on 15-18 years old teenagers. Another vaccine which had proven 90% efficient in the global trials is Novovax. The vaccine got its trials approved by European Medicine Union and has been used as a bridge for the development of Covovax.
On these recent accounts, those above 15 years old became eligible for receiving Covid shots for Covaxin. Around 5.5 crore adolescents have been vaccinated with the first dose and more than 50% of them are now fully vaccinated with the second dose.
With new vaccines coming around, the government is likely to lower the age bar for vaccination among the younger generation, especially in light of the reopening of schools and offline board exams.
