Biological-E,a Hyderabad based pharmaceutical company, will reserve as many as 30 crore of COVID-19 vaccine doses as a part of its advance agreement with the government of India. These vaccine doses will be manufactured and stockpiled by Biological-E from August-December 2021, reports said. The company will receive an advance payment of Rs 1500 crore to procure the vaccine doses.
After showing promising results in phase 1 and 2 trials, Biological-E’s covid vaccine is currently undergoing Phase-3 clinical trial. The vaccine being developed by Biological-E is a RBD protein sub-unit vaccine. It could be ready for DCGI approval by next month.
The proposal of M/s Biological-E was examined and recommended for approval after due diligence by National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC). The vaccine has been under government’s observation from pre-clinical stage trials until now.
The vaccine procurement has been undertaken undertaken as part of government’s ‘Mission COVID Suraksha- the Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission’ which was launched to reinforce and accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development efforts as part of the third stimulus package, Atmanirbhar 3.0.
India has three COVID-19 vaccine – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Serum Institute’s Covishield and Russia’s Sputnik V. While covishield, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford, is being produced in India, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, made in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology, is entirely indigenous.
