Corbevax, Covovax and Molnupiravir: The centre cleared two more vaccines today and one anti-viral drug to boost the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic
New Delhi: The centre cleared two more vaccines today and one anti-viral drug to boost the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The two latest vaccines cleared by India are Corbevax and Covovax. The anti-viral drug Molnupiravir can be used during emergency.
Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet to this big story:
- Corbevax is India’s first homegrown “RBD protein sub-unit vaccine”, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted this morning. It is made by the Hyderabad-based firm Biological-E.
- “It’s a hat-trick! It’s now third vaccine developed in India,” Mr Mandaviya said. The other two vaccines developed in India are Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) Covishield.
- The nanoparticle vaccine, Covovax, will be manufactured by the Pune-based SII.
- The anti-viral drug Molnupiravir will be manufactured in India by 13 companies for restricted use under emergency situation to treat adult patients with COVID-19 and who have high risk of progression of the disease, the Health Minister said.
- With the latest approvals, a total of eight COVID-19 vaccines have got emergency use authorisation from India’s drug regulator – Covishield, Covaxin, ZyCoV-D, Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, Corbevax and Covovax.
- Dr Reddy’s Laboratories in a consortium with Cipla, Mylan, Torrent, Emcure and Sun Pharma had presented their proposal for approval of anti-viral drug Molnupiravir for emergency situation.
- The US Food and Drug Administration recently allowed Merck’s Molnupiravir for treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases in adults who are at risk for severe disease. Before that in November, Britain granted conditional authorisation to Merck’s coronavirus antiviral, the first pill shown to successfully treat COVID-19.
- In a clinical trial of high-risk people during the early course of illness, Merck’s drug was shown to reduce hospitalisations and deaths by around 30 per cent.
- India will start administering COVID-19 booster shots to healthcare, frontline workers and those above 60 with comorbidities from January 10. Those aged 15-18 would start receiving their COVID-19 vaccinations from January 3.
- The emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has put the world in a renewed battle against COVID-19. In India, Delhi and other states have announced night curfew around this time to prevent crowding at public places during the New Year.
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