A game-changing pill and two new vaccines will bolster India's fight against Covid variants

India has granted Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to Serum Institute of India's Covovax, Biological E's Corbevax and antiviral Covid-19 pill molnupiravir in a significant move.

The new vaccines could possibly be used as booster shots in the days to come. With this nod, the number of Covid vaccines which have received emergency use authorisation is now eight.

Six COVID-19 vaccines -- Serum Institute's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D, Russia's Sputnik V and the US-made Moderna and Johnson and Johnson -- had already received EUA from the Indian drug regulator earlier.



Covovax Already Got WHO Nod
Covovax is the Indian version of US drug manufacturer Novavax's recombinant nanoparticle protein-based Covid-19 vaccine.

Novavax and SII have already received EUA for this vaccine in the Philippines. The World Health Organisation (WHO) too recently granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to Covovax.

The other vaccine approved is protein-based Corbevax, produced by Biological E Ltd. The company had been submitting rolling data from the clinical trial to the drug regulator. The Centre has already made an advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore to reserve 300 million doses of Corbevax. EUA has also been granted to antiviral Covid-19 pill molnupiravir.

Developed by MSD and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the drug works by introducing errors into the SARS-CoV-2 virus' genetic code, which prevents the virus from further replicating. Ridgeback is collaborating with Merck on developing molnupiravir. It is administered as four 200 milligram capsules taken orally every 12 hours for five days, for a total of 40 capsules. Molnupiravir is not authorised for use for longer than five consecutive days.

Last week, the USFDA issued EUA to molnupiravir for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease in adults who are at high risk for progression to severe Covid-19, including hospitalisation or death.

In India, Merck & Co. has signed voluntary licensing agreements with Cipla Ltd, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Hetero Labs Ltd and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, for allowing the drug to be manufactured and marketed in India.