India’s 3rd indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, Corbevax approved for children aged 12-18

Hyderabad-located pharmaceutical company Biological E Ltd on Monday said its Covid vaccine Corbevax, India’s third self-developed vaccine, has gotten an emergency use approval in India for use on children aged 12 to 18 years.

“BE received the approval for restricted use in an emergency in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years based on interim results (of the ongoing phase II/III clinical study),” Biological E said in the statement today.

Corbevax is being billed as India’s first homegrown “receptor-binding domain protein sub-unit vaccine against COVID-19”. A receptor-binding domain is a key part of a virus located on its “spike” domain that allows it to dock to body receptors to enter and infect cells. These are also the primary targets in the prevention and treatment of viral infections.

“We are pleased with this significant development, which helps extend the reach of our vaccine to the age group of 12 to 18 years in our country. We truly believe that with this approval, we are even closer to finishing our global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Biological E Managing Director Mahima Datla said in a statement.

According to government figures, more than 76 million children between 15 and 17 have been inoculated mainly using Covaxin.

Production turnaround of Corbevax is very less and it is not very expensive. Its temperature requirement is like any other vaccines (2-8 degrees) and they can be used in our usual childhood immunization settings also without any difficulty.

The NTAGI chief said the vaccine has shown “more activity” against Delta in comparison to Omicron. The government has placed an order with Biological E for five crore doses of the ‘Corbevax’ COVID-19 vaccine with each dose costing ₹145, as per reports.

The Centre had earlier placed an order for 30 crore Corbevax doses on August 21 last year.