Finance
A per the report the Centre will start receiving its first supply of 300 million doses of Biological E’s Covid-19 vaccine, Corbevax, from Tuesday.
The order for these doses was placed on August 21, 2021.
Biological E had already produced 250 million doses of Corbevax and aimed to finish the remaining doses in a few weeks, the report said.
Last year, the Centre had made an advance payment of ₹1,500 crore to the Hyderabad-based company to procure these doses, it added.
The supply of 300 million doses comes a day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) recommended emergency use authorisation to Corbevax for children between the ages of 12-18 subject to certain conditions.
The DGCI is expected to give final approval to the two-dose vaccine soon. Official sources told news agency ANI on Monday the expected cost of Corbevax will be ₹145 excluding taxes.
In December last year, the DGCI had approved Corbevax for restricted use in an emergency situation in adults. But the vaccine is not yet included in the ongoing vaccination drive in the country
According to the Union health ministry, Corbevax is India’s first indigenously developed RBD protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19.
It will be the second vaccine after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has received an emergency use authorisation for children below the age of 18. The above-mentioned sources also told ANI that Biological E will soon submit data for clinical trials of Corbevax done on children below the age of 12.
At present, the Centre has still not taken a decision to vaccinate children below the age of 15.
Till now, the authorities have administered a total of 6,71,46,854 vaccine doses to children between the ages of 15-18. Of these, over 5.21 crore children have received the first dose and the remaining 1,50,14,801 are fully inoculated.
Source:HT
