As India grapples to boost coverage of precaution dose, the pace of vaccine testing seems to be coming down at the country’s apex laboratory in Himachal Pradesh, News18.com has learnt.
From the average monthly flow of 25 to 30 batches of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, the inflow and testing has reduced to six-seven batches at the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli.
“The flow of SII’s Covishield was reduced to nil and now the batches have started coming again. Covaxin is not coming from BB’s facility, but via its bulk manufacturing partner,” said a top government official.
“Overall, the flow for testing is not even half of what it was before,” he said, adding that the door-to-door booster drive may increase the flow once again.
STATUS CHECK
The uptake of booster shot remains low across India and a few states with relatively higher coverage of eligible population (18+ years) with booster doses are Ladakh, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Sikkim and Delhi.
Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand have the lowest coverage in the country, standing at less than 2% of the eligible population.
Covaxin is being administered to adults starting 18 years and above, adolescents starting 15 years and it has also got the nod for 6-12 age group, whereas Covishield is approved as vaccine and booster only for adults starting 18 years and above.
Currently, the lab is testing batches of Biological E’s Corbevax, which has been approved for kids starting 5 years and is awaiting more clearances for heterologous booster shot. More than six crore doses have been cleared so far.
Gennova’s mRNA candidate which has been approved for stockpiling is also being tested along with SII’s Covovax which is majorly used in exports.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF ZYCOV-D’S PENDING NOD
According to the two officials, one from the health ministry and another from CDL, more than 15 lakh doses of ZyCov-D approved from the lab are awaiting clearance from the drug regulator, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), since March.
“CDL has cleared 15 lakh doses of Zydus Cadila’s vaccine in the past four months, but the company is unable to secure a no-objection certificate (NOC) from DCGI.”
News18.com had reported on the issue in April, when 8.5 lakh cleared doses were awaiting the DCGI clearance.
Till now, the market has received the first and only rollout of 2.37 lakh doses of ZyCoV-D.
News18 reached out for an official comment via email, but hadn’t got a reply at the time of publishing.
The latest doses were manufactured at the company’s newly commissioned state-of-the-art Zydus Vaccine Technology Excellence Centre at the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad.
According to the protocol, the first rollout of substances from the new facility requires an NOC from the DCGI.
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