COVID-19: Two dose vaccine likely to be approved today

New Delhi, Jan 03: India is likely to approve administering two doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine and another locally developed by Bharat Biotech, each four weeks apart.

India's Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation has already approved vaccines and a final decision is expected to be announced by the agency at a news conference today at 11 am.

An expert panel of India's central drug authority on Saturday recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin with certain conditions, a day after giving similar direction for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, sources said.

Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Saturday again deliberated on the emergency use authorisation (EUA) application of the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm after it submitted additional data, facts and analysis subsequent to Friday's review meeting, a source said.

Bharat Biotech had applied to the Drugs Controller General Of India (DCGI) seeking emergency use authorisation for its Covaxin on December 7.

On Friday, the SEC had recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield, being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.