Serum Institute of India hopes approval of vaccine will be in matter of days

Recently, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) met to consider the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) on the request of Pfizer, Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech on the subject of the vaccine.

After Pfizer requested some more time for their vaccine to be out, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech were asked to quicken up with their vaccine. The two presented additional data and information that were analysed by the SEC. While every other person waits for their report, the analysis of the additional data and information is still said to be going on. SEC will again meet on January 1 on the matter.

While the approval in India was expected to be received almost simultaneously or within days of the UK regulator approving the vaccine, SII had applied for emergency use authorisation on December 7, it is said. The company had also subsequently presented additional data sought by the SII.

Health minister Harsh Vardhan had indicated recently that the wait for the vaccine was going to end soon and that the country would see the vaccine launch sometime in January 2021.

The Covid-19 vaccine has been developed in record time and demonstrated India’s capability to make vaccines for both the country and the World. As per sources now it was only a matter of few weeks that the vaccine would be out.

It is said that the Indian government has indicated that 30 crore people would be vaccinated in the first phase. Frontline health workers, senior citizens and those suffering with co-morbidities would be the first to get the vaccine.

Pascal Soriot, CEO, AstraZeneca, tweeted on Wednesday, they are working with the UK government and the first vaccinations will begin early in the New Year. AstraZeneca had claimed that it was working with its global partners to continue building manufacturing capacity of up to 3 billion doses of the vaccine globally in 2021 on a rolling basis pending regulatory approvals.