India’s SEC to decide on approving Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine for emergency use authorisation

India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s Subject Expert Committee(SEC) is set to hold a meeting today to decide on approving the Covishield vaccine developed by Serum Institute of India (SII) and AstraZeneca-Oxford University.

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The SEC will decide on whether to allow Covishield vaccine emergency use authorisation to combat COVID-19.

The SII had earlier submitted additional data to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).

Pfizer-BioNTech, Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India had earlier applied to the DCGI for the emergency use vaccine.
  
SII chief Adar Poonawalla had earlier claimed that his company has already produced 40 million doses of the Oxford vaccine and was aiming to ramp up production to at least 100 million doses a month by March.

“We have 40-50 million doses of Covishield stockpiled. Once we get regulatory approvals in a few days, it’ll be down to the government to decide how much they can take and how fast,” Poonawalla said. 

“All data on Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID19 vaccine submitted in India and UK. There are no concerns, regulators are closely reviewing documents and data,” the SII chief executive added.

Poonawala said that although there could be a shortage of vaccine in the first half of the year, there could be an easing off later in 2021 around August September as other vaccine makers will be able to supply it.