New Delhi: According to the report, the Centre will begin receiving its first shipment of 300 million doses of Biological E’s Covid-19 vaccine, Corbevax, on Tuesday.
On August 21, 2021, an order for these doses was placed. According to the sources, Biological E had already produced 250 million doses of Corbevax and planned to finish the remaining doses in a few weeks.
The Centre had made a 1,500 crore advance payment to the Hyderabad-based company to procure these doses last year, it added.
The 300 million doses arrive just one day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) recommended Corbevax for emergency use in children aged 12 to 18 years old, subject to certain conditions.
Corbevax is India’s first indigenously developed RBD protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19, according to the Union health ministry.
It will be the second vaccine to receive an emergency use authorization for children under the age of 18 after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. According to the aforementioned sources, Biological E will soon submit data from Corbevax clinical trials conducted on children under the age of 12.
The authorities have given a total of 6,71,46,854 vaccine doses to children aged 15 to 18 years old so far. Over 5.21 crore children have received their first dose, with the remaining 1,50,14,801 receiving their full vaccination.
The Centre has yet to make a decision on whether or not to vaccinate children under the age of 15.
