India has also approved the use of a new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine by AstraZeneca, a multinational pharmaceutical company following the UK and others.
According to Yonhap News on the 1st, the Indian pharmaceutical authorities decided to approve the emergency use of the Corona 19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca in the UK.
Earlier on that day, an expert panel under the Indian Central Pharmaceutical Standards Administration (CDSCO) held a meeting on whether to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine.
India’s NDTV also reported that the panel recommended the CDSCO for urgent use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to the results of this meeting, the Indian authorities make a final decision on whether to introduce drugs such as vaccines.
This is the first time that the use of the Corona 19 vaccine has been approved in India.
Prior to India, countries that approved the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine were the UK, Argentina, and El Salvador.
In India, the local pharmaceutical company Serum Institute (SII), the world’s largest vaccine company, has been conducting clinical trials of AstraZeneca vaccine.
It is known that SII has already produced 50 million inoculations in preparation for approval. SII plans to increase production to 100 million batches per month by March.
AstraZeneca vaccine is a’carrier (vector) vaccine’ made by putting some of the antigenic genes that cause disease into a virus that is harmless to the human body. The principle of inducing an immune response is different from that of Pfizer’s or Modena’s vaccine developed using’messenger ribonucleic acid’ (mRNA, messenger RNA) containing the genetic information of the virus.
The average immune effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 70.4%, which is lower than that of Pfizer (95%) or Modena (94.5%).
Participants who took half of the vaccine dose first and who took one full dose one month later had a prophylactic effect of 90%, and those who took the full dose of both doses were 62%.
However, compared to the other two vaccines, the price is cheaper and it is convenient to distribute, such as that it can be stored in a general refrigerator (2-8℃).
Currently, in India, three companies, including SII, an Indian pharmaceutical company Barat Biotech, and Pfizer, have applied to the Indian authorities for urgent use of the vaccine.
India plans to start vaccinating sooner or later according to the approval.
The number of priority vaccination targets set by the Indian government is about 300 million people, including medical staff, police, soldiers, and people in their 50s or older.
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