The trial would be held across 10 sites and would cover 920 children -- 460 each in the age groups of 12-17 and 2-11 -- according to official sources.
The government thinks that this move is feasible now because there are many vaccines available for the people, apart from Covishield and Covaxin, and also because there is a sufficient amount of vaccines available in the country.
Cyrus Poonawalla on Friday strongly affirmed that mixing two different vaccines of COVID-19 is a very risky decision and it is must be discouraged.
If cocktail vaccines are administered and if the result is not good, then SII may say that another vaccine was not good, vice versa, the other company might say that since you mixed Serum's vaccine, it did not give desired results, Poonawalla said.
He also thanked the government for all the support provided to Serum Institute and said the company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demand.
The RDIF and Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, will start production of Sputnik V vaccine in September.
According to information provided to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, it has sent 45 batches of Covishield, amounting to 10. 80 crore doses, to the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli for release in June so far
“We are now urgently trying to work with AstraZeneca itself as well as SII, the Government of India to restart those shipments so that we can get those second doses into those populations because we are running” to a longer interval “than we would have liked,” a WHO official said.
The US-based biotechnology company Novavax has tied up with the Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine, namely Covovax.
The DCGI has granted permission to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture the Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine in India for examination, test and analysis with certain conditions.
Pune-based SII has collaborated with Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow in Russia for developing Sputnik V at its licensed Hadapsar facility.
Pune Airport has been playing its role dedicatedly as the hub for the distribution of Serum Institute's Covidshield vaccine across India, the AAI's statement noted.
The Serum Institute has applied to the DGCI seeking permission to manufacture Sputnik V.
India has so far not given any manufacturer of a Covid-19 vaccine indemnity against the costs of compensation for any severe side effects.
Government could approve single-dose regimen for Covishield after a study to review the impact of its recent decision to extend the doses' interval.
Both Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech would be ramping up production of Covid vaccines in India from July. SII is manufacturing Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine called Covishield in India, while Bharat Biotech is producing Covaxin.
There are many parts of the world where one shot has been dispensed to health workers or frontline workers and the second shot has not been forthcoming, USAID told lawmakers on Thursday.
Rajasthan is currently facing shortage of vaccine. So the vaccination drive for 18+ age has currently been stopped in the state.
Around 4K people above the age of 45 yrs who have taken either one or both doses of any of these two vaccines will be reviewed, according to Dr Tarun Bhatnagar, senior scientist at ICMR's NIE in Chennai.
There are two vaccine makers in the country currently -- Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India -- which are manufacturing Covaxin and Covishield, respectively. Only three vaccines have so far been approved to be sold in India --- Covaxin, Coveshield and Sputnik V.
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