Booster shots proven strategy to get antibodies up: Serum's Adar Poonawalla

Says policy makers must decide risk-reward of giving a booster dose; Serum Institute has reached trial phase of vaccine for kids above 3, jab should be ready to launch in six months

A new vaccine that would be more effective against Omicron is in the works but there is no reason to believe that having a Covid-19, coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic,  Covid-19 vaccine will not give adequate protection against variant, Adar Poonawala, CEO, Serum Institute of India said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the confederation of Indian industry (CII) partnership summit, Poonawalla said that policy makers have to decide the risk-reward of giving a booster dose. “We are waiting for the government's decision. We will have the data on how effective the vaccines are against Omicron in a month or two. But boosting is a proven strategy that will definitely get your antibodies up and give you some protection,” Poonawala said.

The Serum Institute has reached the trial phase of the vaccine for the children aged above three and should be ready to launch within the next six months, Poonawala said.

On Omicron he said that it is certain that the variant is more infectious and will spread quickly and while initial reports show that cases are mild, Poonawala said that we should not take the variant lightly. He said, every year would not be like 2021 and it will get better.

“World is better prepared today and hopefully the worst is behind us. The Government of India has been working towards creating an effective healthcare system and has made enough provision for hospital beds and oxygen,” he added.

He also said that globally, the supply of the vaccines has outmatched its demand but going forward there is a need to have a global harmonisation of vaccine procedures which often lead to delays in roll-out. To keep up with the momentum, he said that countries needed to come together and form some agreement in order to prepare standard rules for clinical trials and manufacturing of the vaccines.

“Multilateral organisations and policy makers should be able to identify and isolate the new mutations and find out the efficacy of vaccines against it, in a time bound manner,” he said.