On Sunday, January 3, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr VG Somani announced that the vaccines of Serum Institue of India, Covishield, and Bharat Biotech, Covaxin, have been granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation.
Moreover, Dr VG Somani also informed that the permission to conduct phase III trials have been granted to Cadila Healthcare vaccine against the coronavirus. This comes a day after the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) made recommendations to the Drugs Controller General of India to grant permission for restricted emergency use of the vaccines.
According to an official release, the SEC had met earlier in the week and made its recommendations in respect of the accelerated approval process request of the SII, Bharat Biotech International Ltd as well as about phase III trials of Cadila Healthcare Ltd.
Meanwhile, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin earlier on December 21 informed that the variant detected in the UK has nine mutations, instead of just one which is usually common. However, he also added that the immune response by the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech can deal with the new variant.
In view of the recent developments with regards to the vaccine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to Twitter to share the good news further congratulating the scientists and the researchers.
It would make every Indian proud that the two vaccines that have been given emergency use approval are made in India! This shows the eagerness of our scientific community to fulfil the dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, at the root of which is care and compassion.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 3, 2021
On the other hand, Maharashtra recorded 3,218 fresh cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours taking the COVID-19 tally in the state to 19,38,854. The city of Mumbai meanwhile continues to be a major novel coronavirus hotspot with 592 new cases being recorded in the day.
Share
Tweet
