Covovax more efficient than Covishield against new variant: Poonawalla

Adar Poonawalla, Chief executive Officer (CEO) at Serum Institute of India (SII) said Covovax has better efficacy than the Covishield vaccine against the new covid variant. He added that in the next 10 to 15 days, the centre will give permission to use Covovax as a booster dose.

“The efficacy of Covovax is better against the new covid variants. And we are hopeful that the permission will be granted soon possibly in the next 10-15 days,” said Poonawalla while speaking on the sidelines of the inaugural program of super speciality hospital at Bharati Vidyapeeth on Sunday.

He was responding to a question on a newer variant of Covid creating havoc in some countries. In China, BF.7 has infected many people with fatalities too high.

Besides Poonawalla, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar, Deputy CM Devendra Fadanvis, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, secretary Bharati Vidyapeeth and MLA Vishwajeet Kadam, were present among others.

SII applied to the DCGI in December of last year for market authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covovax, as a booster dose for those over the age of 18. SII is developing Covovax using a technology transfer protocol from Novavax, which has already received conditional marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency.

On the issue of the production of Covishield still being on hold, Poonawalla said, at present, the manufacturing of Covishield has stopped. “But the central government has enough stock with them of Covishield and therefore the manufacturing of Covishield right now has been stopped. However, if the need arises, we will start manufacturing immediately,” he added.

During the programme, Poonawalla was conferred with the Dr Patangrao Kadam Memorial Award for his contribution to the medical field.

While speaking during the program, Poonawalla said that during the pandemic, SII was able to manufacture vaccines for India as well as the world.

“For my work, I have been to many countries but the support and love I get in India is unprecedented. India has a lot of opportunities available for the younger generation to study hard. There are many prestigious educational institutions in our country with better quality education,” said Poonawalla.

Speaking during the event, Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that good education is necessary for industrial development.

“Earlier we used to import defence equipment. But, now we have become an exporter of that. If we want to continue it further, we have to create a good education system. Pune’s industrial growth happened because of education development. Due to the availability of skilled human resources, Pune has become a hub for production and industry. Bharati Vidyapeeth has played a pivotal role in it. It has built educational institutions like that abroad. They did this work as a mission. It should build this system in Vidarbha and Marathwada also. If this happens, Maharashtra will become a great contributor to the development of the country,” Fadnavis.

In his speech, Pawar said while creating new facilities for health, medical research should be at the forefront.

“As new technology advances Artificial Intelligence, we can build a smarter generation. And research in Medicine can help solve the challenges we are facing as a nation,” Pawar said.