Government panel rejects SII's plea to administer a third dose of Covishield vaccine

The Centre has rejected the Pune-based Serum Institute of India's (SII) request to approve the third dose of Covishield even as India registers more than 30 cases of the new Omicron variant. This comes after a review meeting on SII's application submitted earlier this month by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Friday.

The panel sought additional information from the vaccine manufacturer on the need to administer the third dose in the current vaccine format. The SII sought approval to administer the third dose of its vaccine on the basis of adequate stock of Covishield and rising demand for booster shots amid the emergence of Omicron.

The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) also did not consider a request made by Hyderabad-based pharma company Biological E for clinical trials of an additional dose of Corbevax for those inoculated with either Covishield or Covaxin.

Earlier in October, the pharma company issued a statement saying antibodies may decline even among vaccinated individuals citing findings by several studies. The company also went on to say that several countries have already started administering or are mulling booster doses.

Giving the above reasons Biological E stated that it, therefore, wants to examine the safety of its single-dose vaccine, Corbevax, among inoculated individuals. Corbevax is the third made-in-India jab against COVID-19. The vaccine is a recombinant protein subunit vaccine, which is made by using a specific part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus - the spike protein on the virus's surface.