Covid vaccination: Biological E's Corbevax has been approved as a booster or precaution dose for those above the age of 18, and those who are fully vaccinated (double dose) with either Covishield or Covaxin. This is for the first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination against Covid has been allowed in the country.
The Union Health Ministry's approval is based on the recommendations made recently by the COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).
"Corbevax will be considered as a precaution dose after completion of six months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccines for those aged above 18 years enabling use of Corbevax as a heterologous COVID-19 vaccine for precaution dose administration in this age group," the sources said.
This will be in addition to the existing guidelines for homologous precaution dose administration of Covaxin and Covishield vaccine, the sources added. All necessary changes in regard to the administration of the precaution dose of Corbevax vaccine are being made on the Co-WIN portal.
India's first indigenously developed RBD protein subunit vaccine Corbevax is currently being used to inoculate children in the age group of 12 to 14 years under the COVID-19 immunisation programme.
The COVID-19 Working Group (CWG), in its July 20 meeting, reviewed data of the double-blind randomised phase-3 clinical study which evaluated the immunogenicity and safety of a booster dose of Corbevax vaccine when administered to COVID-19-negative adult volunteers of age 18-80 years previously vaccinated with two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.
"Following the examination of the data, the CWG observed that Corbevax vaccine can induce a significant increase in antibody titers when given to those who have received either Covaxin or Covishield, which is likely to be protective as per the neutralisation data also," the sources said.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on June 4 approved Corbevax as a precautionary dose for those aged 18 and above.
(With PTI Inputs)
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