Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla announced the vaccine maker has begun manufacturing the first batch of Covovax, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc.
"Excited to witness the first batch of Covovax [developed by @Novavax] being manufactured this week at our facility in Pune. The vaccine has great potential to protect our future generations below the age of 18. Trials are ongoing. Well done team @seruminstindia," Adar Poonawalla said in a tweet.
US-based Novavax Inc has a vaccine manufacturing agreement with Serum Institute of India, which also manufactures the Covishield vaccine currently administered in the country.
Novavax's vaccine exhibited a 90.4% overall efficacy in Phase-3 clinical trials.
The vaccine candidate 'NVX-CoV2373' demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, 90.4% efficacy overall, and met the primary endpoint in its PREVENT-19 pivotal Phase 3 trial, Novavax said in a statement.
That puts it in the same bracket as two of the frontline vaccines being used in the US and European countries, the ones produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which had efficacy rates of 91.3% and 90% in Phase 3 trials, respectively.
The study enrolled 29,960 participants across 119 sites in the US and Mexico to evaluate efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine, it added.
