India’s 2nd Covid-19 vaccine: Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin gets expert panel’s nod for emergency use

New Delhi: On second consecutive day of the New Year, expert panel of the government has approved emergency use of Coronavirus vaccine.

CDSCO panel on Saturday recommended granting approval for restricted emergency use of Bharat Biotech’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin in India. The panel met earlier today and the meeting lasted for 40 minutes.

Yesterday, India’s drug regulator granted emergency use of Coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca for emergency use.

The Oxford COVID-19 vaccine named Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The Subject Expert Committee of CDSCO met on January 1st & 2nd and made following recommendations for the consideration and final decision of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI):

1) Grant of permission for restricted emergency use of vaccine, subject to multiple regulatory conditionalities, to M/s Serum Institute of India, Pune.
2) Grant of permission for restricted use in emergency situation in public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, specially in the context of infection by mutant strains, to M/s Bharat Biotech International Ltd., Hyderabad.
3) Grant of permission for conduct of Phase-III Clinical Trial Protocol to M/s Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Ahmedabad.