According to the Business Standard, the Centre will begin receiving its first shipment of 300 million doses of Biological E’s Covid-19 vaccine, Corbevax, on Tuesday.
The order for these doses was placed on August 21, 2021.
Biological E had already produced 250 million doses of Corbevax and aimed to finish the remaining doses in a few weeks, the report said.
Last year, the Centre had made an advance payment of ₹1,500 crore to the Hyderabad-based company to procure these doses, it added.
The supply of 300 million doses comes a day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) recommended emergency use authorisation to Corbevax for children between the ages of 12-18 subject to certain conditions.
The DGCI is expected to give final approval to the two-dose vaccine soon. Official sources told news agency ANI on Monday the expected cost of Corbevax will be ₹145 excluding taxes.
The DGCI approved Corbevax for limited usage in adults in an emergency circumstance in December of last year. However, the vaccine is not yet included in the country’s ongoing vaccination campaign.
Corbevax is India’s first indigenously created RBD protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19, according to the Union health ministry.
It will be the second vaccine to acquire an emergency use authorization for children under the age of 18 following Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. According to the aforementioned sources, Biological E will shortly submit results from Corbevax clinical trials conducted on youngsters under the age of 12.
The Centre has yet to make a decision on whether or not to vaccinate children under the age of 15.
