On a day when the The UK approved the use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for children over 12 years old, the central government said clinical trials of Covaxin and the vaccine developed by Zydus for children are ongoing in India.
When asked if the government will allow the Pfizer vaccine to be used in children since the UK approved it, Dr. VK Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog announced that studies are being carried out in India to test the effectiveness of vaccines in children.
“Regarding the use of the vaccine for children, please keep in mind that the children’s cohort in India is not a small cohort. My rough estimate is that we would need about 25 crore doses of rest,” said Dr. Paul.
He added that Bharat Biotech is already doing studies with Covaxin on children and these studies will not last long as they are immunogenicity studies.
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“The Zydus vaccine is already being tested on children. When Zydus applies for the license for his Covid-19 vaccine, probably in the next two weeks, We may also have enough data to judge whether this vaccine can be given to children. These matters are discussed on an ongoing basis, ”said Dr. VK Paul.
Data on coxavin will be passed on to the WHO
When asked when Covaxin is likely to receive a nod from the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Paul that the data exchange with the WHO is taking place in order to recognize Covaxin from Bharat Biotech. He said the government wanted to reach this “milestone” as soon as possible.
“We have worked with both Bharat Biotech and WHO to make this possible. A data exchange is taking place and we are very interested in this milestone being reached as soon as possible. We’re chasing him, ”he said.
On May 24, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech announced to the government that it had already submitted 90 percent of the documents to the WHO to obtain an emergency list (EUL) for the Covaxin vaccine.
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The latest guidance document “Status of COVID-19 Vaccines in the Framework of the WHO-EUL / PQ Assessment Process” from May 18 on the WHO website states that Bharat Biotech submitted an EOI (Expression of Interest) on April 19 and that “further information is required”.
A pre-submission meeting is expected to “be scheduled from May to June 2021,” the guidance document says. According to the WHO, submissions for prequalification or inclusion in the emergency procedure are confidential.
(With PTI inputs)
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