Indian-made Covovax listed for emergency use to increase access to vaccination in lower-income countries

KATHMANDU, December 19: With aim to increase access to vaccination in lower-income countries, the World Health Organization has recently listed Indian-made Covovax (NVX-CoV2373) for emergency use.

According to a press statement of the WHO, the vaccine, named Covovax, is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licence from Novavax and is part of the COVAX facility portfolio, giving a much-needed boost to ongoing efforts to vaccinate more people in lower-income countries.

“This listing aims to increase access particularly in lower-income countries, 41 of which have still not been able to vaccinate 10% of their populations, while 98 countries have not reached 40%” further reads the statement.

Covovax is a subunit of the vaccine developed by Novavax and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). It requires two doses and is stable at 2 to 8 °C refrigerated temperatures. The vaccine uses a novel platform and is produced by creating an engineered baculovirus containing a gene for a modified SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.