The Subject Expert Committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) met on 1st and 2ndJanuary, 2021 and made important recommendations, namely, permitting Restricted Emergency Approval of COVID-19 virus vaccine of M/s Serum Institute of India and M/s Bharat Biotech; and Phase III clinical trial of M/s Cadila Healthcare Ltd. The committee granted emergency use approval for Serum Institute’s Recombinant Chimpanzee Adenovirus vector vaccine (Covishield). The committee also cleared M/s Bharat Biotech’s Whole Virion Inactivated Coronavirus Vaccine (Covaxin) developed with ICMR and NIV (Pune). Lastly, the committee also approved M/s Cadila Healthcare’s Novel Corona Virus-2019-nCov-Vaccine using DNA platform technology for conducting Phase-III clinical trial in 26000 Indian participants.
India airlifted more than six million COVID-19 vaccine doses to nine nations.