Coronavirus Vaccine: Mixing of Covishield and Covaxin is "wrong", says Poonawalla

The Serum Institute of India (SII) Chairman-MD, Cyrus Poonawalla, credited the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) for India's speedy launch of the COVID-19 vaccine.

He also said that the quick response was possible because of 'permission, encouragement to industries and considerably reduced licensing raj'. 

Poonawalla was speaking at the event where he received the Lokmanyat Tilak National Award instituted by the Lokmanya Tilak Trust on Friday, August 13.

Besides, Poonawalla also mentioned that mixing of COVID-19 vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin is "wrong" and such a mixing is not at all proven in field trials.

There is no need to mix the doses, Poonawalla said, adding that if some thing goes wrong then there could be a blame game between the two vaccine makers.

On the other hand, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently revealed that mixing and matching of Covaxin and Covishield, the Covid-19 vaccines available in India, have shown better results in building immunity against the virus.

Meanwhile, talking about the potency of the coronavirus vaccine, he said that even after taking both doses, the antibodies in a person's body are reduced after six months. Therefore, after two doses, a third booster dose is required. However, due to non-availability of vaccine, the government has imposed a gap of 84 days between two doses. But if the COVID-19 outbreak persists, you may need to be re-vaccinated after a booster dose.

The vaccine drive in India was launched earlier in January after SII's Covidshield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin were granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation.

Also Read: Mixing COVID-19 vaccines is a dangerous trend, warns WHO