NTAGI holds meeting on Covovax inclusion as heterologous booster on CoWin portal

New Delhi: National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation conducted a meeting on February 8 regarding the inclusion of Covid-19 vaccine Covovax as a heterologous booster dose for adults on the CoWin portal to boost uptake of the doses, sources said on Thursday.

In the month January, the Serum Institute of India (SII) also wrote a letter to the Union Health Ministry seeking the inclusion of its Covid vaccine Covovax on the CoWIN portal.

On January 16, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved market authorisation for the Serum Institute of India (SII) COVID jab Covovax as a heterologous booster dose.

Last week the government drug regulatory authority Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) recommended market authorisation for Serum Institute of India's Covid vaccine Covovax as a heterologous booster dose for those who have already taken two doses of Covishield or Covaxin.

Earlier, DCGI had approved Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in adults on December 28, 2021, for ages between 12-17 on March 9, 2022, and also for children who come under 7- 11 years on June 28, 2022, subject to certain conditions.

Covovax is manufactured through technology transfer from Novavax. It has been approved by the European Medicines Agency for conditional marketing authorization. It was granted an emergency-use listing by the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 17, 2021.

Recently, Bharat Biotech's nasal Covid vaccine for adults above 18 years old had been launched by the Government of India and its batches were also released.

The vaccine is available in private hospitals.

iNCOVACC is the world's first Intranasal Vaccine to receive both Primary series and Heterologous booster approval. (ANI)