The first batch of Covovax, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc, is being manufactured at the Serum Institute of India's Pune facility, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted on Friday.
"Excited to witness the first batch of Covovax (developed by @Novavax) being manufactured this week at our facility in Pune. The vaccine has great potential to protect our future generations below the age of 18. Trials are ongoing. Well done team @seruminstindia," Poonawalla said in a tweet.
Novavax had stated that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate was highly effective with 90.4 per cent efficacy overall and also showed high efficacy against predominantly circulating variants. The vaccine candidate 'NVX-CoV2373' demonstrated 100 per cent protection against moderate and severe disease, 90.4 per cent efficacy overall, and met the primary endpoint in its PREVENT-19 pivotal Phase 3 trial, Novavax said in a statement.
The Novavax vaccine requires two doses, like most other vaccines. NVX-CoV2373 contains a full-length, prefusion spike protein made using Novavax' recombinant nanoparticle technology and the company's proprietary saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant.
The purified protein is encoded by the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and is produced in insect cells. It can neither cause COVID-19 nor can it replicate. It is stable at 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius (refrigerated) and is shipped in a ready-to-use liquid formulation that permits distribution using existing vaccine supply chain channels.
In March this year, the clinical trials of Covovax vaccine had begun in India and the company hopes to launch it by September this year.
In August 2020, American vaccine company Novavax Inc 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.
-Inputs from
