Likely to be widely available in India by the summer. Novavax has a deal with Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) for the manufacture of at least a billion doses of its vaccine for low- and middle-income countries and India.
Novavax has a deal with Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) for the manufacture of at least a billion doses of its vaccine for low- and middle-income countries and India. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said that his company has applied for permission to conduct a trial in India.
Novavax said its two-shot vaccine showed an overall efficacy rate of 89%, with a high of 96% against the dominant global variant of the virus. Novavax said its two-shot vaccine showed an overall efficacy rate of 89%, with a high of 96% against the dominant global variant of the virus. The efficacy dipped to 86% in the case of the B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the UK, and further to 60% in the case of the B.1.351 variant spreading in South Africa.
SII, which produces the largest volumes of vaccines every year, is also making a billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which it has supplied in millions to India, where it is the most widely used dose.
Poonawalla earlier this month announced that his company would manufacture 40-50 million doses per month of the Novavax vaccine. In addition to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is marketed as Covishield in India by SII, the country is using Covaxin developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. This vaccine has not yet reached the trial endpoint to determine efficacy rate.
