DCGI nod obtained, but new vaccines yet to be rolled out

New Delhi: The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given its nod to three vaccines for emergency use in India, apart from Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V that are already in use. However, these new vaccines are yet to see the light of day for use in the immunisation drive in India.
Two vaccines that received the DCGI nod for “restricted use in emergency setting” in December last year, are “Covovax”, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), and “Corbevax” of Biological E. The Zydus Cadila-manufactured “ZyCov-D” was given emergency usage approval by the DCGI in August last year.
Corbevax and Covovax are protein subunit vaccines, where through the jab the spike protein of the coronavirus is injected into the body to tutor it to strike an immune response in the human body, thus providing immunity against Covid-19.
ZyCov-D is the world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine, which can be administered needle free. This vaccine was expected to be rolled out by the end of last year and was expected to be administered to children, since this was one of the first vaccines that received the clearances for it to be administered to children between 12 and 18 years of age.
When Corbevax got the approval last month, Biological E had said in a press statement that around 200 million doses of the vaccine were already lying in their stock at the cold room, and that by February this year, they would be fulfilling the Central government’s order of 300 million doses.
Biological E had also said that the company plans to complete production at the rate of 75 million doses per month, anticipating that 100 million plus doses of the vaccine would be required each month beginning next month. Covovax has not yet announced any plans on the rollout of the vaccine, despite SII CEO Adar Poonawala expressing his happiness on the announcement of the approval of the vaccine.
However, sources in both Biological E and SII told The Sunday Guardian that they are still waiting for the guidelines and further approvals from the government on the rollout.
“We are still in the process of seeking approvals from the government on the rollout. Some of the batches of our stocked vaccines have been checked by the government authorities. It is still not clear when we can see these vaccines in the market though,” a senior Biological E official told this paper.
According to some reports, a batch of ZyCoV-D had reached some of the vaccination centres in Delhi-NCR. However, plans for the rollout of the vaccine and when it would finally be administered to the people are unclear.
The Sunday Guardian had sent a detailed questionnaire to Biological E, SII as well as Zydus Cadila for an official response on the reasons for the delay and the expected dates for the rollout of the vaccines. Biological E responded by saying, “We have no answers to the queries” shared by this newspaper at this moment. “We will keep you updated when we have the answers,” the company said.
SII said that they would not like to comment on Covovax at the moment. This newspaper has not received any response from Zydus Cadila till the time of going to the press.
India currently has limited options as far as vaccination against Covid-19 is concerned. The three vaccines that are available to the public currently are SII’s Covisheild, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and the Russian-made Sputnik V. While 90% of vaccination in India is being done through Covishield, followed by Covaxin, only a minuscule fraction of vaccination is done through Sputnik V.
It was anticipated that with the approval of three other vaccines, the vaccine basket against Covid-19 would increase, giving Indians greater number of choices. Health experts are of the opinion that since the government has now opened up vaccination for children and precautionary doses for the vulnerable population and frontline workers, this is the right time to expedite the rollout of the approved vaccines, which would in turn increase the pace of vaccination in the country. Currently, only Covaxin is being administered to children.
The Sunday Guardian has also sent an email to the Union Health Secretary and the office of the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare seeking responses on the reasons for delay in the rollout of the approved vaccines, but has not received any replies till the time of going to the press.