Centre Allows Export Of 7 Crore Covovax Doses To Three Foreign Countries

The Indian government has permitted the export of seven crore doses of the Covid vaccine Covovax produced by the Serum Institute of India to Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand, official sources said today.

The Serum Institute had submitted an application to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for clearance to export the vaccine doses to foreign countries, official sources said.

"After evaluation, the DCGI office gave its nod to the export of seven crore doses of Covovax to Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand," they said.

This vaccine is not approved in these countries yet.

India's central drug authority CDSCO had on Tuesday approved Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in the country. The DCGI office had granted SII permission to manufacture and stock Covovax on May 17. Based on DCGI approval, till now, the Pune-based firm has manufactured and stockpiled the vaccine doses, they said.

The World Health Organisation had on December 17 issued an emergency use listing for Covovax, expanding the basket of jabs validated by the global health body against the viral disease.

The Centre had in November permitted the export of two crore doses of Covovax to Indonesia before the Indian emergency use authorisation.

In August 2020, US-based vaccine maker Novavax had announced a licence agreement with SII for the development and commercialisation of NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in low and middle-income countries and India.

The Covovax vaccine of SII is a technology transfer of Novavax USA vaccine.