Covid-19 Impact: Pharma - SBI
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Transcript of Covid-19 Impact: Pharma - SBI
11�THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | THURSDAY | 14 JANUARY 2021 | WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Covid-19 Impact: PharmaCovaxin Shipped to 11Cities, 1.65mDoses Donated to Govt: Bharat Bio
Our Bureau
Hyderabad: Bharat Biotech In-ternational said it had despat-ched consignments of its indige-nously developed Covid-19 vacci-ne Covaxin to 11 Indian cities byair in the wee hours of Wednes-day and has donated 1.65 milliondoses to the government.
Bharat Biotech received theinitial phase of a governmentpurchase order for 5.5 milliondoses and shipped them to NewDelhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pu-ne, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhubanes-war, Patna, Guwahati, Kuruks-hetra and Gannavaram, thecompany said in a statement onWednesday.
Some shipments have reachedtheir destination cities and therest were expected to be delive-red by late Wednesday,the company said.
Covaxin was develo-ped and produced byBharat Biotech in colla-boration with the Indi-an Council of MedicalResearch-National In-stitute of Virology.
The vaccine enteredphase-3 human clinicaltrials in November andthey are currently underway with about 26,000 vo-lunteers participating inIndia. The trials are con-
sidered first phase-3 efficacy studyfor a Covid-19 vaccine in India.
Bharat Biotech had said Covax-in produced promising safetyand immunogenicity results inthe phase-1and 2 clinical trials.
The Drugs Controller Generalof India approved Covaxin forrestricted emergency use on Ja-nuary 3, along with a vaccine
developed by the Uni-versity of Oxford andAstraZeneca, whichis manufactured by
Pune-based Serum Institute ofIndia.
Bharat Biotech can produce 20million doses of Covaxin annual-ly at its facility in Hyderabad.Bharat Biotech plans to produce700 million doses a year by expan-ding capacity of the existing faci-lity and setting up three moremanufacturing units.
Vaccinationsin Delhi toStart at 89Booths
New Delhi: Vaccination against Covid-19in Delhi will start at 89 centres located in40 government and 49 private hospitals onSaturday.
“The first batch of 254,500 doses of Covis-hield and 20,000 doses of Bharat Biotech’sCovaxin have reached Delhi so far,” a go-vernment official said. “More batcheswill follow.”
Every centre has been asked to vaccinateat least 100 people per day, the official said.The numbers will, however, depend on thevaccine availability.
Once the process to vaccinate healthcareworkers and frontline workers starts, theDelhi government has asked the districtmagistrates to collect data about peopleabove 50 years of age and younger oneswith comorbidities.
“After this, we start with the prepara-tions regarding data collection of peopleabove 50 years of age,” the official said.
A prominent private healthcare provi-der in Delhi said the state government hasalerted them to be ready for the vaccina-tion drive starting on January 16.
“Dry runs have happened,” said anotherofficial from a private hospital. “As it in-volves a lot of IT infrastructure, the stategovernment had brought their own sy-stem. They have asked us to identify peo-ple who are trained to inoculate, and spacewhere inoculations can be given.”
Earlier, the Delhi government had askedthe private hospitals to provide a list of he-althcare and frontline providers to be in-oculated in the first phase. “The lists ofthe people who qualify for the first roundhave been submitted to the Delhi govern-ment,” the official said.
Earlier this month, the Drug ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI) gave emergencyuse approval to two Covid-19 vaccines – Se-rum Institute of India’s Covishield andBharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
VK Paul, member (health) at NITI Aayog,had on Tuesday said the vaccines have be-en tested on thousands of people and side-effects are negligible. Calling the two vac-cines the “safest”, he said there was norisk of any significance.
89 booths
40 govt &
49 private hospitals
At Last
Over 2.5 lakh doses of Covishiedand 20,000 doses of Covaxin have reached various centres
Every centre has beenasked to vaccinateat least 100 people
Numbers will depend on vaccine availability
VACCINATION WILL START AT...
ward to Serum Institute of Indiasubmitting full data sets for rapidassessment so WHO can determinewhether we can recommend theirAstraZeneca vaccine for interna-tional use.”
An email sent to Serum Institu-te on when it plans to apply forWHO prequalification did notelicit any response as of press ti-me Wednesday.
Officials aware of the develop-ment told ET that the company sho-uld be registering the vaccine forprequalification this week.
Covax Facility is a collaborationbetween WHO, GAVI-Vaccine Alli-ance, and Coalition of EpidemicPreparedness and Innovation (CE-PI) to ensure equitable distribu-tion of Covid-19 vaccines to count-ries that neither have pre-purcha-se agreements with vaccine ma-kers nor have manufacturingcapabilities in their countries.
Serum Institute of India is one ofthe manufacturers that has signedup to supply up to 400 million dosesof vaccines to the Covax Facility. Inthe first quarter, the company is ex-
pected to supply 200 million dosesof the AstraZeneca/Oxford vacci-ne which it has developed in Indiaand branded as Covishield.
Serum also has a tieup with USdrug maker Novavax to supply vac-cines to the Covax Facility.
Indian vaccine manufacturers,with a capacity to manufacture morethan a billion vaccine doses, are ex-pected to play a crucial role in distri-bution of Covid-19 vaccines.
Serum Institute and Bharat Bio-tech have already struck deals withthe South African government tosupply one million doses of vacci-nes and Bharat Biotech has anno-unced that it will be supplying vac-cines to Brazil.
The WHO director general hascalled for a collective commitmentso that within the next 100 days vac-cination of health workers andthose at high risk categories startsacross all countries.
A WHO team is also working withproducers of Sinovac and Sinop-harm vaccines developed in Chinato assess compliance with interna-tional quality manufacturingpractices ahead of potential emer-gency use listing by WHO, Adha-nom had said.
WHO continues to ask vaccine cos under Covax to register for pre-qualification: Director General
Action RequiredWhat is a WHO prequalifi cation?It is a service provided to facilitate access to medicines
What diseasesare covered?HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. It is also being extended for Covid
What standards should it meet?Drugs should meet unifi ed standards of quality, safety and effi cacy
Prequalifi cation makes it easier
for cos to launch products as it
signifi esa uniform
quality
Mumbai: The World Health Orga-nisation has asked Serum Instituteof India to submit its data from cli-nical trials of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine conducted in Indiafor prequalification, to kick off thedistribution of vaccines under theCovax Facility.
WHO prequalification is a servicethe global organisation provides tofacilitate access to medicines thatmeet unified standards of quality,safety and efficacy. So far this ser-vice was for medicines and vacci-nes against HIV/AIDS, malariaand tuberculosis; now, it is also be-ing extended for Covid-19.
The prequalification makes it easi-er for companies to launch productsacross the world, specifically in low-and middle-income countries, as itsignifies uniform standards.
“WHO continues to ask vaccinemanufacturers from around theworld to move swiftly to providethe necessary data that will allowus to consider them for emergencyuse listings,” Tedros Adhanom, di-rector general of WHO, had saidearlier this week. “We also look for-
WHO asks Serum for CovishieldTrial Data to Begin Global Supply
CORONA METER
GLOBAL COUNT
92.31 MTotal Cases
66.04 MRecovered
1,977,678Deaths
Source: worldometers.info (11:05pm)
215,325(-1,007°)
Active Deaths151,701
(+203)
Recovered10.15M(+18,254)
Source: PTI, 11:08 PM, °net of recoveries/deaths
TOTAL CASES IN INDIA
10.51M (+17,450)
Samples Tested so Far*
Source: ICMR, *12 Jan, ^3-day average
POSITIVE TESTS^
5.73%
836,227in last 24
hours*
183.49MILLION
CORONAVIRUS
-+
Active RecoveredDeaths
ShareIn Total15.98%
5 Main Metros*[Total Cases]
Global Vaccination Drive30.5 Million+ dosesadministered in 43 countries
Source: Bloomberg
6K new cases in Kerala,3.5K in Maharashtra; Global
case count crosses 92m
3179
5678
7527
2042
1487
[630892]
[393673]
[300474]
[228368]
[126091]
Delhi
Bengaluru Urban
Mumbai
Chennai
Kolkata
Source: State websites, covid19india.org[*districts/metros]
India Wants Pfizer to Do Local Studyof Its Covid Shot for Approval: OfficialNew Delhi: Anyvaccine maker, includingPfizer Inc, which has sought emergency-use authorisation for its Covid-19 shot inIndia, must conduct a local “bridging” sa-fety and immunogenicity study to be con-sidered for the country’s immunisationprogramme, a senior government officialtold Reuters.
Serum Institute of India, the local manu-facturer of the vaccine developed by Astra-Zeneca Plc and Oxford University, has do-ne a similar study on more than 1,500 peo-ple over months before seeking and recei-ving emergency approval in the country.
Local media have reported that Pfizerhad sought an exception when last monthit became the first company to seek emer-gency-use approval in India for its vaccine
already in use overseas. The company hasnot attended subsequent meetings calledby India’s drugs regulator.
“Asof now, the pre-condition for any vaccineto be implemented in India is that you have todo a bridging trial,” Vinod K. Paul, who headsa government panel on vaccine strategy, said
in an interview in his office nearthe parliament building.
APfizer spokeswomen did not im-mediately respond to a request see-
king comment.Paul also said Russia’s Sputnik V, a shot
undergoing last-stage trials in India, willsoon apply for emergency-use approval inthe country. No vaccine maker will be gi-ven indemnity by the government shouldsomething go wrong, Paul said.— Reuters
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