The expert panel of India’s drug regulator authorized the use of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, as the country faces a second wave of novel coronavirus cases and a vaccine shortage.
The decision comes after the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) met today to discuss the Sputnik V application for Emergency Use Authorization in India.
In the face of a vaccine shortage, the DCGI will now accept the SEC’s proposal for the third Covid vaccine to be made available in India. The first two are the locally produced Oxford Covid-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ by Serum Institute of India and the locally manufactured Covaxin by Bharat Biotech.
India is in the third phase of its massive Covid-19 vaccine campaign, which began on January 16, 2021. According to the preliminary report, a total of 10,45,28,565 vaccine doses were delivered across 15,56,361 sessions as of 7 a.m. on Monday.
Following an initial assessment in February, DCGI requested additional details from drugmaker Dr.Laboratories Reddy’s on its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine trial last Friday.
The committee had previously requested that the organization send a comparison of late-stage immunogenicity results from both its Indian trials and a current Russian review, as well as information on significant adverse effects and positive cases identified to date.
Top government sources told news agency ANI on Sunday that India will receive vaccines from five additional manufacturers by the end of the third quarter of this year. Covishield and Covaxin are currently manufactured in India.
“Covishield and Covaxin are the two COVID-19 vaccines currently produced in India, with five more vaccines expected by Q3 2021. Sputnik V vaccine, Johnson & Johnson vaccine =, Novavax vaccine, Zydus Cadila’s vaccine, and Bharat Biotech’s Intranasal Vaccine are the vaccines in question. The Union government’s primary considerations when giving emergency use authorization (EUA) to every COVID-19 vaccine in the country are safety and effectiveness.” According to ANI,
