New Delhi: The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central government on Friday rejected the plea of Serum Institute of India for approval of Covishield as a booster dose, CNN-News18 reported. Earlier in the day, the committee reviewed the SII’s application — which was submitted earlier this month and decided against recommending a third dose of Covishield. And not just that, the committee has also sought data from the SII on the need to add the third dose in the current vaccine format, the report stated.
It must be noted that the Serum Institute had earlier sought the approval of the SEC to administer the third dose of its vaccine, citing adequate stock of the jab and increasing demand for booster shots due to Omicron variant threat.
Apart from this, the SEC also did not consider the request made by Biological E for clinical trials of an additional dose of Corbevax for those inoculated with either Covishield or Covaxin.
The Biological E had in October issued a statement saying that studies have suggested antibodies may decline even among vaccinated individuals and several countries have already started administering or are mulling booster doses.
The company had also added that it wants to examine the safety of its single-dose vaccine, Corbevax, among inoculated individuals.
Corbevax, which is the third made-in-India jab against coronavirus, is a recombinant protein subunit vaccine and it is made by using a specific part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The other made in India vaccines include Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D.
Notably, India so far has not come up with any policy for administering the third dose of vaccine to its people even as several countries have already started administering booster shots to its citizens.
Recently, Indian Council of Medical Research chief Dr Balram Bhargava had said that the additional dose should be taken not before nine months of taking the second dose. He had also added that the Centre is not calling it the ‘booster dose’ and what it should be called is the ‘third dose’.
Earlier in the day, the Central government informed parliament that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 are deliberating and considering scientific evidence for the need and justification for a booster dose against Covid.
According to the information available on www.ourworldindata.org, more than 60 countries across the world are providing booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in a written reply on Friday.
Recently, states like Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh urged the Centre to decide on allowing booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine amid concerns raised by ‘Omicron’, the new variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The Delhi High Court had on November 25 directed the Centre to clarify its stand on administering booster doses to those who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, saying it does not want a second-wave-like situation on account of being conservative.
