India Backs AstraZeneca, Orders 10 Million New Doses

New Delhi, 9 Feb 2021:

India said on Tuesday it had no concerns over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine despite South Africa putting it on hold, and ordered 10 million more doses of the shot for its own huge immunisation campaign.

South Africa delayed use of the vaccine after researchers found it offered minimal protection against mild-to-moderate COVID-19 disease caused by the country's dominant coronavirus variant.

India, with the highest number of infections after the United States, has yet to detect the South African variant and will continue to use the vaccine in an inoculation drive that has covered 6.3 million front-line workers since January 16.

"Our vaccination programme is robust and valid, and I assure you that we are going ahead with it, not worried at the moment," Vinod Kumar Paul, a top vaccine official in the country, told a news conference.

"We will intensify our surveillance and we will be watching other developments in due course."

The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, has licenced the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University and markets it as COVISHIELD for low-and middle-income countries.

India has ordered 10 million more doses of COVISHIELD on top of 11 million supplied earlier, an SII spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday. SII has agreed to sell at least 100 million doses to the government at a discounted price of Rupees 200 each, though the government says firm orders will be staggered based on its needs, and also on vaccine shelf-life.

Covishield is about 72% effective, based on late-stage trials done abroad, says the country's drug regulator.

The country is also using the COVAXIN shot developed at home by Bharat Biotech with Indian Council of Medical Research. Bharat Biotech has supplied 5.5 million doses to the government and is selling 4.5 million more, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

The government wants to cover 300 million people by August, reaching the elderly and those with existing conditions by March.

India has reported 10.85 million infections and more than 1,55,000 deaths - though cases have fallen sharply since September. ND TV