Omicron-specific Covid Vaccine for India Expected in Next 6 Months, Says Adar Poonawalla

Poonawala also informed that the vaccine's entry into the Indian market will depend on clearance by the Indian drug regulator.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Victor Dasgupta

Updated: August 15, 2022, 11:53 PM IST

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Omicron-specific Covid vaccine for India in 6 months, expects Adar Poonawalla

New Delhi: Serum Institute of India’s (SII) Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla on Monday said that he expects an Omicron-specific vaccine against the coronavirus for India in six months. In an exclusive interview to NDTV Poonawala said that the vaccine will be specific to the BA5 sub-variant of Omicron and can be expected within six months.

“Think this vaccine is important as a booster,” Poonawalla told NDTV. “Although the new variant may not cause a lot of hospitalisations, it is very serious if you get it. It is like a bad case of the flu. It is in my opinion important to get this vaccine as a booster whenever you get it,” he added.

Poonawala also informed that the vaccine’s entry into the Indian market will depend on clearance by the Indian drug regulator. It is not yet clear whether a separate clinical trial is required in India.

“Trials of Novavax is in progress in Australia currently. By November-December should be in a position to approach the US drug regulator,” Poonawalla said to NDTV.

“Whether we have to do a separate trial in India is yet to be decided. Our team is talking with the government officials… and we hope to have a vaccine at the end of this year or latest first quarter of next year,” he said.

UK Approves Updated Moderna Vaccine Targeting Omicron Variant

United Kingdom’s drug regulator on Monday said that it has approved an updated Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 that targets the Omicron variant as well as the original form of the virus.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has released a statement and said that it had approved the vaccine for adult booster doses “after it was found to meet the UK regulator’s standards of safety, quality and effectiveness”.

It was the first such “bivalent” Covid-19 vaccine to be approved by the British regulator.

The data from a clinical trial had shown it prompted a “strong immune response” against the original virus and Omicron and would provide a “sharpened tool in our armoury” as the virus kept evolving, the MHRA’s chief executive June Raine said.

Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement that the US biotech company was “delighted” by the decision, “the first authorization of an Omicron-containing bivalent vaccine”.