Covavax, another corona vaccine to be launched in the country, also effective against new strains: Adar Poonawala

Pune, 30 January 2021 Saturday

A 89 per cent effective vaccine against the new strain of corona virus is expected to be launched in India by June 2021, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawala said on Saturday. In his company, in partnership with Novavax Inc, one more Covid- Applying to start trials of 19 vaccines, he hoped that by 2021 the company could launch one more Covavax of the Corona virus.

In fact, drug company NovaWax Inc. said just days ago that the Covid-19 vaccine was 89 percent effective against a new strain of the virus based on preliminary findings from an ongoing study in Britain, the company claimed its vaccine was spreading to new strains in Britain and South Africa. It also seems to be effective in developing immunity.

"Our partnership with Novavax for Covid-19 vaccine has brought very effective results. We have applied to start testing in India, hoping to start production of Covavax by June 2021," Poonawala said on Twitter on Saturday.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) is already producing the Covidshield vaccine, developed by Oxford University and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. The central government has so far procured 11 million doses of the Covidshield vaccine for the vaccination campaign in the country.