SII seeks inclusion of Covovax in Govt vax drive for 12 yr and above

Registrations for 12-14 year olds on Co-Win will begin from Wednesday

Right ahead of the Covid-19 vaccination programme for 12-14 year old children, Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII) has now urged the Centre to include Covovax, the Novavax vaccine, in the children vaccination drive.

Sources close to the development said that SII has urged the government to include Covovax in the national Covid19 immunisation drive for 12 years and above.

“SII has written to the Union Health Ministry urging them to use the vaccine for adolescents too in the government programme. The company has also indicated that they already have queries from several institutions, schools, hospitals, public sector undertakings (PSUs) etc to use the vaccine, and is looking to price it at Rs 900 per dose (excluding GST) in the private market,” the source cited above said.

The company is also keen to supply to the public immunisation drive, but has not indicated any price for supplying to the Centre. SII has written a letter to Union health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan saying that it is waiting for the health ministry’s directions for supplies of Covovax to the Government of India.

The vaccine already has a nod from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for use in children 12 years and above. However, the Centre has announced that it would use only Corbevax, the Biological E vaccine, for vaccinating the 71.1 mn children falling in the age group 12-14 years.

Meanwhile, after a brief controversy broke out on Monday with one member of the National Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI) saying that the vaccine think tank had not approved vaccinating children below 15 years.

Government sources, however, pointed out that the NTAGI was okay with expanding the Covid19 vaccination drive to below 15 year olds and that the vaccinations for 12-14 year olds will start from Wednesday. “Co-Win registrations for this segment will start from March 16,” said a senior government official. Attempts to reach NTAGi chief NK Arora were not successful.

J P Muliyil, epidemiologist at CMC Vellore and member of the working group of National Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI) had said on Monday that the they were not in favour of expanding the vaccination drive to include more younger children after the Omicron wave, as there was no scientific evidence that it would be beneficial.

At the same time, his peer His peer T Jacob John, senior virologist and former head of the departments of clinical virology and microbiology at Christian Medical College, Vellore said that it is better to go ahead with vaccinations, collect evidence and then if evidence shows that vaccination is not necessary, then do away with it.

"But deciding to not vaccinate because of lack of scientific evidence may prove to be risky. Even if there is a single child's death in that case, it would be on our conscience," John told Business Standard.